Cotton Commissioner of Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MNFS&R) Dr Khalid Abdullah while talking to Business Recorder said that rains would badly affect cotton crop as downpour during picking and harvesting stage of cotton increased moisture level in open balls which deteriorated its quality and delays its harvesting. "Delay in harvesting of cotton will indirectly impact on the upcoming wheat crop as it would delay its sowing," he said.

The Cotton Crop Assessment Committee (CCAC) had earlier revised cotton sowing target downward by around 33 percent to 10.2 million bales from the initial target of 15 million bales for the current season as it missed sowing target by over six percent.

CCAC further stated that cotton arrivals in the ginning factories of Pakistan were lower by 27.04 percent compared to last year's arrivals of the same time period. This year cotton arrivals were recorded at 2.934 million bales as compared to 4.021 million bales last year.

Another official said recent rains would have a positive impact over other crops including sugarcane, wheat, Basmati rice and fodder. He said rains before sowing and till grain formation stage were greatly beneficial.

He said the government had set wheat production target at 27 million tons for Rabi season 2019-20 from an area of 9.2 million hectares of land. The official said sugarcane production for 2019-20 was estimated at 64.77 million tons from an area of 10.060 million hectares.

The rice production for 2019-20 is estimated at 7.7 million tons from an area of 3.036 million hectares. The area and production increased by 5.5 percent and 3.6 percent respectively from the target.

According to farmers advisory by National Agromet Center of Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), proper precautions during picking of cotton must be taken because the cost of good and clean quality cotton is higher.

Farmers were further advised to schedule the irrigation plans in context of upcoming Rabi crops. Removing weeds from the standing crops is very important as weeds utilize moisture and food which are to be utilized by the crop. As a result considerable loss in yield occurs every year.

According to PMD widespread rain/wind- thunderstorm with snowfall over the hills is expected in all districts of Upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Islamabad, Gilgit Baltistan, Kashmir and at scattered places in Lower Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (DI Khan, Laki Marwat, Bannu, Karak, Tank, Kurram, Kohat and Waziristan) till Friday. Scattered rain/wind-thunderstorm is also expected at districts of upper/central Punjab on Wednesday and Thursday.

Isolated heavy falls may also occur in upper parts of the country. Hailstorm is also expected at isolated places during the period.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019