ISLAMABAD – The government is considering setting up an autonomous body, the Pakistan Cotton Board, on the basis of public private partnership in a bid to double domestic cotton output within the next few years. An official source revealed that the committee on cotton constituted by President Asif Ali Zardari met under the former Agriculture Minister Nazar Mohammad Gondal. The meeting was attended by Federal Ministers, Mir Israrullah Zehri and Makhdom Shahabuddin and representatives of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) to finalise recommendations before a briefing made to the president.
The source in the meeting informed that the creation of Pakistan Cotton Board was in the final stages. The autonomous board would work on public private model to develop indigenous high yielding cotton varieties to boost domestic production.
The president had formed the committee to develop local cotton seed production along modern lines to meet the growing domestic requirement. The committee is focused on increasing the per acre yield of cotton. APTMA has already offered to finance local research institutions for enhancing the country’s annual cotton output from 11 million bales to over 16 million bales, an official source said.
The meeting was informed that the major hurdle in the enhancement of cotton output was low funding allocated to research institutions. APTMA offered to finance research on equity basis with the public sector to enhance cotton production to 16 million bales per year to meet the requirements of local industry. Pakistan is importing nearly two million bales every year to meet the requirements of the local industry.
The major impediment in enhancing cotton production is the Cotton Leaf Curl Virus (CLCV) that surfaced in early 1990s and has been a thorn in the side of production with local research institutions unable to find a viable counter to the disease. Officials indicate that there was success in controlling the disease by crossing local and commercial varieties but more financing was required to develop successful varieties.
It was pointed out that research work in developing new virus resistance varieties needed to be expedited and the scientists should be offered special pay scales to improve their service structure. It was decided that research institutions which introduce new varieties will be given a major share in the marketing rights apart from bonuses for individual scientists to promote research in the country. The provinces were advised to adopt better management practices as a short term measure to increase the per acre yield of cotton in the country. Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) was directed to import germ plasma of different cotton seed varieties to develop virus resistant varieties locally.
Pakistan Cotton Board in the offing
