Farmers advised to prepare land for timely cotton sowing

The Met Office on Monday advised the farmers of Sindh and Southern Punjab to prepare their land for timely cotton sowing after wheat crop harvesting. "Farmers of Southern Punjab and Sindh are advised to prepare land for cotton in time so that best grains conditions may be fully utilised during the whole crop life," the office said in its 10-day advisory for growers.
It said that the wheat crop had fully got matured in agricultural plains of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. However, harvesting and threshing of wheat crop had been completed in agricultural plains of Sindh and its adjoining parts of Southern Punjab. "Farmers are therefore advised to harvest the full matured crop keeping the expected rains in mind," it warned, saying that the farmers should control weeds from further growth to avoid negative impact on the crops.
It said that farmers of Upper half and Northwest Balochistan should be careful about irrigation and spraying chemicals on crops during or before the rains expected in the next 10 days. "Wheat obtained after threshing should be stored with proper treatment so that wheat may be kept for long time without any loss due to present and expected moist conditions," the office urged.
It warned farmers of pests and viral attacks on the sugarcane crops following recent rains, saying that "farmers are therefore advised to take in time precautionary measures in this regard". Mainly hot and dry weather is forecast for most parts of Punjab with light to moderate rainfall in the province including Rawalpindi and Gujranwala in the next five days.
Weather in Sindh is expected as mostly hot and dry with light rain at few places including Sukkur and Jacobabad in the next five days. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, mainly dry weather is predicted with light to moderate rainfall at few place including Hazara, Dera Ismail Khan and Peshawar Divisions during the next 10 days. Mostly hot and dry weather is expected in most parts of the Balochistan with light to moderate rain at few places including Kalat, Khuzdar, Zhob and Quetta in the next five days. In Gilgit-Baltistan, rain-thunderstorm is expected during the next 10 days. Mainly dry weather is expected in most of the parts of Kashmir with rain-thunderstorm in Muzzafarabad and Rawalakot in the next 10 days.