CS orders action over fake pesticides

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Secretary Zahid Akhtar Zaman directed the authorities to intensify the crackdown on fake pesticides and constitute special squads comprising officials of agriculture department for checking in the field.

He issued this directive while presiding over a meeting to review cotton production targets, at the Civil Secretariat on Wednesday. The administrative secretaries of agriculture, irrigation and finance department attended the meeting while the divisional commissioners of Multan, Bahawalpur and DG Khan participated through video link. The chief secretary said that 74 Farmers’ Facilitation Centres have been established across the province where high-quality pesticides are being provided at controlled rates. He ordered that sample testing be started to check the quality of pesticides throughout the province. The chief secretary said that the government’s encouragement of cotton cultivation is yielding positive results and per acre yield of cotton has increased significantly. He also issued instructions to the divisional commissioners of Multan, Bahawalpur, and DG Khan to fully monitor the cotton crop and ensure the supply of canal water to the tail ends. The secretary agriculture gave a detailed briefing at the meeting. He said that 13 to 15 maunds per acre is being obtained from the first picking of cotton crop.

More than 21,000 growers have benefited from Farmers’ Facilitation Centres where the pesticides worth about Rs60 million have been sold so far. He mentioned that the data of 1,000 farms has been provided to the LIMS for pest surveillance and advice.