MULTAN,Feb 17th: Director General Agriculture (Extension) Punjab Dr.Anjum Ali Butter and Direcrtor General Pest Warning Syed Zafar Yab Haider have stated that they have accepted the challenge of increasing the cotton production with the cooperation of farmers and assured that qualitative seed,latest technology and proper guidance would be provided to farmers .They said that efforts will be made to bring more land under cotton cultivation this year for which unprecedented prices are being offered to farmers.They were exchanging views with Vice Chairman of Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) Maher Muhammad Ashraf , Former Chairmen, Haji Muhammad Akram, Shehzad Ali Khan, Suhail Mehmood Haral, Ex-Vicer Chairman Aasim Saeed Sheikhand Khawaja Riaz Siddiqui. He assured that well germinated certified and heat resistant seed would be supplied to farmers as 3,50,000 maund of tested cotton seed were available, including 45,000 maunds seed of approved varieties being marketed by the Punjab Seed Corporation .Anjum Ali Butter said that the Punjab Agriculture Department has finalised a plan to increase cotton production this year. He said that there will be a special focus on the pre-sowing and after sowing stages along with effective pest control for which the print and electronic media will be effectively used to guide cotton growers. He assured that Cotton committees would be constituted at Tehsil and district level with the consent of PCGA to do work for the betterment of cotton crop.Director General said that the department had a good stock of urea fertilizers and DAP fertilizers will be made available in the market. He directed the extension and pest warning wings of the agriculture department to prepare inventory of cotton-specific pesticides for an effective planning to avoid speculators. They said that there will be no water shortage this year.He said that Cotton contaminants include common shopping bags, hair of women who pick cotton manually, threads of nylon bags used for storing cotton, sand, dust and stalks and leaves of the cotton plant itself.These contaminants not only affect the quality of cotton, but also make it expensive for textile mills. A survey by the International Textile Manufacturers Federation puts the global figure for contamination-related losses to $200 million a year. There is dire need of training of female cotton pickers before the start of the picking season . They were also to be provided with grey cloth without any charge because they usually use plastic bags or dupattas to collect cotton. They suggested that cotton growers should avoid to sow cotton ion March because weather is not in favour of early crop.
