Pakistan fixes intervention price to improve cotton production

Pakistan government as part of measures to improve production of cotton in the country has fixed intervention price at Rs 3000 per 40 kgs for seed cotton phutti that will help save farmers from any possible loss due to price fluctuation. This very step will encourage the farmers to cultivate more cotton in future .

The overall cotton production is estimated as 13.5395 million bales as compared to 12 million bales produced during last year.

The Ministry of Textile Industry sources enumerating details of the measures on Monday said that the availability of certified/approved class of seed to farmers in a timely manner was ensured. The germination standard of the available seed was also fixed at 75 pc instead of previously approved 50 pc to lessen the loss of farmers on this account .

The concern department has approved moreover, 21 new varieties of cotton (including Bt cotton). Also area under cultivation of cotton has been improved from 2.767 million hectare to 2.861 million hectare despite flood losses of about 86,000 hectare.

The other step taken was to strengthen Pakistan Central Cotton Committee, the premier cotton research organization, to enable scientists to produce new better varieties of the crop.

The sources said that due to above stated steps; the reports showed that all parameters of cotton crop were significantly better than the last year.