ISLAMABAD: Federal Cotton Committee (FCC) will meet on February 19 to fix the crop sowing targets for the next crop season (2015-16) and take stock of the crop production during last year.
Officials of the federal ministries including National Food Security and Research, Textile Industry Division, Planing Development and Reforms will attend the meeting, a top official of Ministry of Textile Industry told APP.
Cotton Commissioner, Dr. Khalid Abdullah said that Indus River Authority System will present the water availability situation during the season while the metrological office will apprise the meeting about the weather forecast and about the precautionary measures for crop to get maximum output during the season.
Besides, he said that officials of State Bank of Pakistan, National Bank of Pakistan and Zarai Traqiati Bank will present the credit disbursement and availability for cotton crop sowing.
Dr. Abdullah further said that other stakeholder including National Fertilizer Corporation, Plant Protection Department and Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department will also attend the meeting.
Cotton Commissioner said that despite the rains and flash floods which had effected the crop, about 13.48 million bales cotton output recorded during last season.
He further said that this year it is expected that cotton crop sowing targets to be set at 3.2 million hectares for producing 15 million bales during the coming season.
Federal Government in collaboration with the provincial agriculture departments had started programme on "Clean Cotton Picking" and trained about 2,700 female trainers to introduce the farmers with clean cotton picking mechanism to enhance the prices of their produces.
He said that government was also intended to train more staff for the training and avoiding the cotton crop from different pollution which minimize the prices of the cotton crop in local as well as international markets.
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