Ministry of Textile Industry trained 4,514 cotton growers

ISLAMABAD: Ministry of Textile Industry in collaboration with other stakeholders has trained about 4,514 cotton growers in order to enhance the output of major cash crop across the cotton growing areas of the country.

As many as 103 training programmes were conducted across the crop growing belt, besides airing 17 radio programmes and TV shows to create awareness among the farming community, said Cotton Commissioner, Dr Khalid Abdullah.

Talking to APP here on Wednesday, he said that the farmers were provided training about off-season crop management, pink ball worm management and cotton verities selection for the cultivation.

They were also trained about the soil preparation to achieve higher per acre cotton crop output to maximize the farm income by producing the clean cotton crop, he added.

He further informed that 52 training programmes were organized in Punjab province and trained 2,162 farmers about the off-season crop management.

Meanwhile, 24 training session were conducted in Sindh and 27 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces respectively to create crop management awareness among the farmers of these areas, he added.

Dr. Abdullah said that about 1,322 farmers of Sindh Province were provided training about off-season crop management, besides 1,030 farmers from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan were also trained respectively.

He said that besides these training programmes 3 Kissan mala were also organized to create awareness about off-season crop management to overcome the threats of pest attacks on cotton to avoid possible damages for the crop.

Meanwhile, he said that the first meeting of Cotton Crop Assessment Committee (CCAC) would be held here on August 10 to asses the volume of current cotton crop in the country.

He said that picking of seed cotton was started in lower Sindh in first week of July and crop out look was stable and encouraging production was expected during the season.

Khalid Abdullah said that cotton crop was in good condition in rest of cotton belt of Punjab and Sindh, besides the pest situation was also below economic threshold level.

About the seed cotton prices he said that the prices were remained between Rs 2,800-3300 per 40 kg in domestic markets.