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Pakistan unlikely to achieve cotton target

Sources said that officials of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) were doubtful about getting the revised 15 million bales target this season as more 10 per cent of the crop had already been physically damaged by rains that hit southern Punjab and Sindh in April, May and June.

The rivers also witnessed floods in April and May that damaged cotton crop in southern Punjab. The flood water that stayed in the fields for many days also crippled the normal growth of the crop at its earlier stages that could badly affect productivity, the sources said. They said the monsoon season had started at least 20 days. Normally, monsoon started after July 15 but this year it commenced in the last week of June. Last year, there was normally dry weather during the sowing season and the temperature had also remained reasonably higher for many days after the sowing was over.

The hot and dry weather had not only caused the proper growth of the crop at its earlier stages but the severe heat that had remained till the middle of April had also reduced the production of pests and weeds owing to which the government was able to achieve the 14million bales target at the end.

The sources said rains had caused huge damages to cotton crop in Liya, Muzafargarh, Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan and Rahim YarKhan districts. They said in Punjab cotton had been sown on 8million acres this year. However, till the middle of July flood had played havoc with 2,35,000 acres of the crop, while another 35,000 acres were destroyed by persistent rains till the middle of July.

Sources in Minfal said the government had done indeed very little to activate the Seed Certification and Registration Department to discourage a the fake seeds companies from operating in the country. Resultantly, fake seeds were again sold to farmers this season. They said the government did not bring any amendments to its basic seed policy.