Ministry of Textile to organize conference on climate change for educating cotton farmers

ISLAMABAD: Ministry of Textile Industry in collaboration with Meteorological Department would organize a series of conferences on 'climate change' at national as well as local level in order to educate the cotton growers about the adverse impact of climate change on the crop.

"The step is being taken to avoid the climate change impacts on major cash crops including cotton in the country besides educating the growers and field extension workers of the provinces to minimize the challenges of climate change on cotton crop", said Dr. Khalid Abdullah, the Cotton Commissioner in the Ministry of Textile Industry.

Talking to APP here on Thursday, he said that cotton arrival during current season had witnessed 33 percent decrease in local markets across the country.

About 44 percent decrease in cotton arrival was recorded in Punjab province that were attributed to climate change including unprecedented rains, pest attacks and harsh weather across the cotton growing areas the country, he added.

The other factors which had contributed in lower crop production were above average rains fall in each districts of Punjab, lower market of cotton crop during season and very poor crop management by the farmers, he observed.

Highlighting the remedial measures taken by the government for the cotton crop production, he said that Ministry of Textile Industry had already organized two-national level seminar during current month (January) in Punjab and Sindh province for educating the farmers about the climate change and its after effects.

Further more, he said Textile Ministry in collaboration with Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC) is also organizing awareness seminars at the door steps of the growers living in remote areas of the county.

In this regard, the Ministry has planned 18 workshops and seminars in Sindh Province and 20 programmes in Punjab for educating the farmers about the climate change and crop management to achieve higher production, he added.

Dr. Abdullah said that the farmers would also be trained about the pest management and to overcome the pink bollworm attack on the cotton crop which had destroyed the crop over a vast area in the country.

The Textile Ministry has set a target to train about 40-50 farmers in each session as about 88 farmers were trained in national level session which was attended by a large number of growers, he added.

Besides, a master trainers programme has also being designed to train over 200 master trainers from the field extension departments of the provincial agriculture departments and other workers from non-governmental organizations.

These master trainers would further train the people at local level about crop management, climate change and pesticides managements for achieving the best crop during the coming season, he remarked.