MULTAN, Oct 3rd:PCGA Chairman Dr.Jassu Mal has called upon all the stakeholders to realise their responsibilities to revive the cotton economy and the Government should constitute a board or commission headed by Prime Minister and Chief Minister to monitor the activities for enhancing cotton production on monthly basis. He warned that the National economy would be devastated if the Government did not take notice of declining cotton production which is a national tragedy. Addressing a Press Conference here today along with Senior Vice Chairman Malik Tufail Ahmed, Vice Chairman Chander Lal and Ex-Chairman Shehzad Ali Khan,he said that Government should strictly prohibit the sowing of sugarcane in cotton zone and provide certified and good quality seed to growers and pesticides on subsidised rates and other incentives. He said cotton production not only supported the overall agriculture sector, but it also, directly and indirectly, helped various industries.He said that Cotton runs the textile, fabrics, cloth mills but also garment factories besides providing byproducts like Oil, animal feed(Khal) and sticks to burn. There is no other crop that had such by-products.Dr.Jassu Mal pointed out that other crops were being sown on 0.5 million acres of land in the Cotton zone. Now cotton production in Punjab reduced to a mere five million from 1.2 million bales. Expressing his concern on the mushroom-like development of housing schemes on agriculture land even in rural areas.PCGA Chairman said that Government must declare the support price of "Phutti"(Raw-cotton)at the time of sowing to make this crop profitable besides ensuring the availability of fertilizers and other agriculture inputs at reasonable rates. He stressed the need for the education and awareness of farmers to stop the misuse or excessive use of pesticides.Dr. Jassu mal said that our cotton production declined to 7.5 million from 15 million bales while neighbouring country India's production climbed to 40 million from 11 million bales.PCGA Chairman said that our agricultural scientists failed to evolve heat & disease-resistant variety of cotton .The government was spending billions of rupees on research institutes since the inception of Pakistan but our scientists failed to deliver. Malik Tufail Ahmed,Chande Lal and Shehzad Ali Khan also spoke and said that the day was not far off when we would be able to produce 20 million bales.They said that 50 percent of ginning factories are lying closed due to the non-availability of cotton. They mentioned that there was a need to boost the overall condition of the cotton industry through modernization and technology upgrades.
