ISLAMABAD: Cotton crop cultivation during the current sowing season (2017-18) has witnessed about 18 percent increase in Punjab as compared the sowing of same period of last year.
However, it decreased by 6 percent in Sindh during the period under review, according to a top official in the Ministry of Textile Industry.
During the current sowing season, cotton crop has been cultivate over 2.743 million hectares in Punjab which is 18 percent higher as compared the same period of last year.
However, cotton sowing in the Sindh Province during the period under review decreased by 6 percent as the crop has been cultivate over 0.598 million hectares of land, he added.
Meanwhile, he said that final figures of the cotton cultivation across the crop growing areas in the country would be complied by the end of current month, which would depict the overall production in the country.
He further informed that over all cotton crop sowing has witnessed 12 percent increase during the current sowing season as compared the sowing of same period of last year.
He said that crop cultivation has been completed over 88.2 percent area against the targets set for current sowing season (17-18).
He said that government had set a target to produce 14.4 million cotton bales by cultivating the crop over an area of 3.11 million hectares.
The Punjab had been assigned a task to cultivate the cotton crop over an area of 2.4 million hectares, whereas Sindh Province crop cultivation targets were fixed at 0.65 million hectares, he added.
The increasing trend in cotton cultivation was the result of a series of steps taken by the federal and provincial governments including provision of subsidy on fertilizers, pesticides and electricity, he added.
In order to enhance the crop cultivation and enhancing its productivity, Textile Ministry in collaboration with the other stakeholders, had organized a series of training programmes for farmers and held field seminars for creating awareness among the farmers, he added.
Source: www.customstoday.com.pk