LAHORE: The Punjab government has set cotton production target at 9.5 million bales for 2016-17.
This was stated by Additional Secretary Agriculture Hussain Sardar, while addressing the Cotton Crop Management Group’s (CCMG) second meeting at the Central Cotton Research Institute.
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The additional secretary said that all resources would be used to achieve the target. He said that the cotton seed reform project had been initiated to curb the cotton crisis. He said that the Punjab government had approved to set up the Punjab Agriculture Commission.
Sardar said that the government had allocated Rs 1.8 billion in the budget to provide the most modern machinery to the farmers to increase per acre yield. A chain of service centres would be established across the province to provide agriculture equipment, including tractors, harvesters and bulldozers, he added.
Speaking on the occasion, Punjab Director General Agriculture (Extension) Dr Anjum Ali said that at least 822,799 cotton farmers had been imparted modern cultivation training. He said that statistics showed that 84 per cent cotton area had been cultivated, which was 14 per cent less than the last year.
Punjab Director General Agriculture (Research) Dr Abid Mehmood said that research was under way to combat climate changes.
Punjab Director General Agriculture (Pest Warning) Chaudhry Khalid Mehmood, National Assembly former speaker Syed Fakhar Imam, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture Vice-Chancellor Dr Asif Ali, CCRI Director Sajid Masood Shah, PCGA representatives and others were also present.
