Despite the damages caused by the floods in the cotton growing areas, the production of the crop during the current season has been estimated at 13.3 million bales.
“The Cotton Assessment Committee has estimated cotton production at 13.3 million bales against the set targets of 14.6 million bales,” Cotton Development Commissioner in the Ministry of Textile Industry, Dr. Khalid Abdullah told APP.
He was of the view that it was very encouraging that despite the torrential rains and flash floods in two major cotton producers provinces Punjab and Sindh, better crop output has been projected.
He said that according to the second estimate of the committee, 9.6 million cotton bales were produced in Punjab whereas 3.6 million bales in Sindh while 0.1 million bales production has been estimated in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.
Dr. Abdullah said that the committee in its first meeting had estimated about 9 million cotton bales production in Punjab and about 3.56 million bales in the Sindh province which were revised upwards during the second estimates of the crop.
The third meeting of the Cotton Assessment Committee would be held by the end of current month to measure the crop out put across the country during current season and for preparing the strategies for next sowing, he added.
Cotton Development Commissioner said that the government had set the cotton production at 14.6 million bales during the current financial year by cultivating the crop over 2.5 million hectare land to produce 10.5 million cotton bales in Punjab and 0.65 million hectare land to produce 4.0 million bales in the Sindh provinces.
Out of the total set targets, cotton crop was cultivated over 530,000 hectare in Sindh where as the Punjab achieved 2.29 million hectares crop sowing during the period under review, he added.
However, he informed that due to flash floods in the country about 2.4 percent area under cotton crop was damaged in Punjab and Sindh losses 11 percent area out of the total cultivated land.