LAHORE: Secretary Agriculture Punjab Ifitkhar Ali Sahoo has directed the high-ups of the provincial agriculture department to increase field inspection for cotton pest scouting, surveillance, monitoring and timely control of harmful insect attack.

He said officials besides divisional expert groups should go to the field and provide technical guidance to the farmers. The month of August is particularly important for achieving the cotton production target as the chances of insect attack increase due to heat and humidity during this month.

He was presiding over a review meeting on cotton crop monitoring and management at Civil Secretariat, Lahore. In the meeting, Additional Secretary, Agriculture (Task Force) Punjab Mohammad Shabir Ahmed Khan, Director General Agriculture (Extension) Dr Anjum Ali, Director General Agriculture (Pest Warning), Punjab Rana Faqir Ahmed, Director General Agriculture Crop Reporting Punjab Dr. Abdul Qayyum and other officers participated while Bahawalpur Multan, DG Khan, Bahawalpur, Faisalabad, Sahiwal and Sargodha division directors and deputy directors and progressive farmers and representative APTMA Dr Javed participated through video link.

While giving a briefing on this occasion, the Secretary Agriculture was told that the overall condition of cotton in the province is satisfactory. In DG Khan, Bahawalpur and Multan, the attack of whitefly has been observed in some places, but it has not reached the economic threshold of the damage.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023