Seven more people lose life to corona in Multan

MULTAN: Seven more corona patients died at Nishtar Hospital. The deceased were identified as Maqbool, 70, M Afzal, 45, of Khanewal, Nadira, 50, Ejaz Ahmed, 42, M Javed, 46, Rehana Bibi, 48, and Saira, 63, all from Multan. Total 186 patients, including 71 positive, were under treatment at Nishtar Hospital.

The divisional health authorities compiled statistics from public and private hospitals in Multan division, revealing the overall positive cases percentage reduced from 8.09pc to 5.58pc.

Total 1,911 corona tests were conducted in the division and 112 patients tested positive. Seventy-five patients tested positive in Multan district where 886 corona tests were conducted in the last 24 hours. The Khanewal district conducted 356 corona tests and six patients tested positive. The Lodhran district performed 499 corona tests and 14 tested positive. The Vehari district conducted 170 corona tests and 17 patients tested positive.

Steps on to supply quality cotton seeds to growers: Significant steps are being taken for the supply of quality cotton seeds to growers through public-private partnership that would bring a sizable increase in per acre production.

Talking to The News here on Saturday, Pakistan Central Cotton Committee Vice-President Dr Muhammad Ali Talpur stated that the Ministry of National Food Security was going to take important steps to provide high quality seeds to the cotton growers this year in collaboration with the public and private sectors and basic work had been started in this regard.

Dr Muhammad Ali Talpur said that for the first time in the history of the country, the PCCC was going to carry out large-scale multiplication of high quality cotton seeds produced by the Pakistan Central Cotton Committee in its subsidiaries.

This would improve the cotton rehabilitation and development efforts while maintaining seed purity, excellent germination and good production potential, he added.

He said that the PCCC would hire the services of reputed seed companies under an agreement.

He said that the PCCC had assigned an exclusive task to Director Research PCCC Dr Tasawar Hussain Malik for liaising directly with the heads of research institution under the Pakistan Central Cotton Committee to provide pure, quality and quality cotton seeds to the farmers this year.

Dr Ali Talpur said that the Ministry of National Food Security was playing its role in obtaining high seed technology of cotton from Chinese agronomists under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Project at the government level and soon they would introduce Chinese technology in the country.

After getting the technology, we would be able to tackle whiteflies, pink bollworm, cotton leaf curl virus and other challenges.

It would not only reduce the production cost of cotton, but also make cotton a profitable crop, he added.