ISLAMABAD: Cotton cultivation has registered five percent increase during current season as compared to the corresponding period last year, said Director Marketing and Economic Research Dr Muhammad Ali Talpur on Tuesday.
"The major cash crop of the country that is cultivated on vast area, has shown 5 percent increase this year," he told APP. This year crop sowing was set at 3.1 million hectares to produce about 15.1 million cotton bales in two main crop producing provinces Sindh and Punjab, he said.
Talpur said, cotton crop had been cultivated over 2.98 million hectares so far against the set target of 3.1 million hectares for 2015-16 season achieving over 97 percent area of the set target.
He said that during last sowing season 92 percent of set targets were achieved whereas this year due to favoring environment and better crop management, area under cotton crop had increased.
Dr. Muhammad Ali said that Punjab province has achieved 96 percent of the sowing target and it had cultivated cotton crop over 2.24 million hectares of land which was up by 6 percent as compared to the sowing of last season.
Meanwhile, Sindh which is other major crop producing province has achieved 100 percent crop sowing target fixed for the current crop sowing season and cultivated the cotton over 6.56 million hectares of land, he added.
Cotton crop sowing in Sindh Province has witnessed 7 percent increase as compared to the sowing of same period last year, he said adding that the crop has also been sown in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province on 100,000 hectares and 20000 to 25000 hectare respectively.
To a question, he said that recent torrential rains and flash floods in the country had damaged the crop in some areas of Sindh including Khairpur and Larkana.
However, he said no reports of any major damage to cotton crop has received from the Punjab Province adding that field formation was conducting survey for getting the actual crop damage figures.
The field workers of the provincial agriculture departments would submit their reports within next 15-20 days for formulating the next strategy, he added.
Dr Talpur advised the farmers to take proper care of cotton crop during the rainy season and take measures to drain the stagnant water from the fields to avoid any damage.
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