Punjab agrees to boost cotton cultivation to 5 million acres

LAHORE: Punjab, the largest cotton-producing province in Pakistan, has agreed to the federal government's request to increase its sowing target for cotton cultivation to five million acres, officials said on Saturday. Earlier, during the meeting of the Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) on April 12, 2023, Punjab insisted that cotton sowing had declined over the years due to greater acceptability of competing crops by the growers. Hence, it said it would be a mere cosmetic step to fix a hard-to-achieve cotton sowing target area while ignoring ground realities that discouraged farmers due to infeasible crop economics. Resultantly, for the first time ever, target for cotton sowing could not be fixed before the start of the season. During the discussion at the FCA meeting, Punjab was being forced to fix a cotton sowing target at 5.0 million acres for crop 2023-24. However, Punjab argued that competing crops like sugarcane, corn, rice, and now oilseed and pulses have squeezed the cotton cultivation area to a great extent. Hence, only 4.0 million acres of area could be set as the cultivation target, and the province might reach 3.5 million acres. After a series of consultative sessions at the provincial level, Punjab finally came up with a plan to enhance cotton sowing target to 5.0 million acres. A meeting held in this connection was held on Saturday in Multan, where responsibilities were assigned to the officials concerned of South Punjab regarding the implementation of what it called the Cotton Action Plan 2023. Speaking on the occasion, Iftikhar Ali Sahoo, Secretary Agriculture, Punjab said that all resources would be used to revive cotton cultivation in Punjab. He said that on the instructions of Punjab chief minister, the target of cotton sowing for this year has been set at 5.0 million acres with production target of 8.226 million bales. He said that share of South Punjab in cotton production has been assed at 91 percent. He made it clear that all the institutions have to take the responsibility under the national spirit to achieve the cotton cultivation and production target. Sahoo recalled that the support price has been set at Rs8,500/40kg for the current season. Moreover, he said that the government of Punjab is providing subsidy of Rs1,000/bag on 12 selected approved varieties of cotton, while Rs11 billion has been provided for subsidy on urea fertiliser. In response to a question, the secretary said that on the directives of Punjab CM, all extra duties except agricultural activities of the field staff have been abolished during the cotton season so they can achieve the target of sowing cotton alongside the farmers.

In the meeting, it was told that this year, 2.134 million acres of cotton will be brought under cotton cultivation in Bahawalpur Division, while cotton will be cultivated on 1.269 million acres in Multan Division. Sahoo directed staff concerned to ensure availability of quality agricultural inputs to the farmers during cotton season this year, holding staff of Agriculture Extension and Pest Warning responsible for this activity. Besides, a procedure should be devised for giving cash prizes to farmers and staff in recognition of their services to encourage them for growing cotton on a larger area. He also met with representatives of progressive cotton farmers, Pakistan Crop Protection Association (PCPA) and Crop Life, a group of multination seed and pesticide companies. He stressed that the revival of cotton would be possible only with the joint efforts of all stakeholders.