ISLAMABAD: Additional Secretary Agriculture Dr Ghazanfar Ali Khan has said the government was striving hard to develop best quality cotton seed varieties for getting higher yield.
During inspection of different varieties cultivated at Cotton Research Institute in Multan, he urged upon cotton scientist to develop varieties which could have potential to bear extremity of weather and immense resistance.
He maintained the cotton should meet demand of local textile industry. He also hailed the liaison between Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture and Research Institute would surely come up with good results.
A piece published earlier: Federal Cotton Committee (FCC) will be meeting tomorrow (Monday, March, 6) to analyze arrangements of cotton crop cultivation during the upcoming session of 2017-18 across the cotton growing areas of the country. Cotton Commissioner Dr. Khalid Abdullah has informed that the said meeting will be attended by officials of federal ministries including national food security and research, textile industry and planning and development. Representatives of other stakeholders including Federal Seed Certification Department, Meteorological office, Indus River System Authority and Zaraei Taraqiati Bank Limited will also be available. While the report about the water supply situation during the season will be presented by Indus River System Authority, the meteorological office will apprise the meeting of the weather forecast. Dr. Khalid said that the precautionary measures of the crop will get the maximum output. Cotton Commissioner also said that in order to avoid pest attacks on major cash crop of the country, ban was enforced on early crop cultivation before April 15, 2017. In order to overcome any pest attack, Ministry of Textile Industry in cooperation with other stakeholders has launched a comprehensive training program for cotton growers. Under the training program, more than 500 master trainers were coached and assigned to further educate officials of field’s extension departments of the provinces to disperse training to the farmers in Punjab. (Published on 5t March 2017)
