MULTAN: Contamination in cotton brings low returns from international markets and causes approximately Rs 12 billion per annum loss to the national economy. An agriculture spokesman said in a statement on Friday that contamination-free cotton attracted handsome price from domestic as well as international markets and increased average per acre foreign exchange.
The spokesman advised farmers to adopt proper techniques from picking to storage and transportation to ensure that clean cotton should reach markets or ginning factories.
Farmers should start cotton picking at 10am in the morning when moisture evaporates from open cotton bolls due to sunlight. Moisture damages the colour of cotton.
The spokesman said that farmers should avoid picking cotton in cloudy weather conditions.
Cotton pickers should start picking cotton in rows under guidance from a supervisor and should begin process from the bottom of every plant.
Cotton pickers should be wearing cotton gloves and use cotton cloth pieces to collect fibrous cotton flowers when on the field.
Contamination should be removed from the cotton and it be kept on a clean dry place over a piece of cloth and exposed before sunlight.
Jute and polypropylene bags should not be used and instead cotton be packed in cotton bags which should be stitched with cotton yarn.
Picking should be repeated after every fortnight or 20 days. Farmers should avoid smoking during storage and transportation of cotton to ginning factories.
