Cotton sowing completed on over 1.96mln hectares

ISLAMABAD: Food minister was informed that cotton sowing was completed on over 84 percent or 1.96 million hectares out of 2.32 million hectares of cotton target area, with output target likely to be achieved this season.

Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam chaired a meeting in this regard, where he took stock of the situation and reviewed input positions to discuss cotton intervention price, a statement said.

The meeting was attended by senior officials of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research and representatives of all provincial ministries and allied departments.

The minister said that cotton output target was fixed at 10.51 million bales during the current season.

Representatives of the Agriculture Ministry of Sindh informed the meeting that due to shortage of irrigation water during the season, cotton sowing was not progressing fast, and stressed the need for taking measures to enhance area under cotton production.

About 84 percent targets for the current season had so far been achieved and figures were expected to further increase during the coming days.

The meeting was apprised about cotton cultivation across the potential areas of all four provinces. Punjab has sowed over 1.35 million hectares against the set target of 1.6 million hectares, while Sindh has sowed 0.533 million hectares out of its set target of 0.64 million hectares during the current crop sowing season.

The minister said that the government was taking measures to enhance productivity of all major crops including cotton to achieve sustainable economic development and social prosperity.