LAHORE: The Punjab government has initiated a process for exploring options aiming at enhancing cotton plantation in the province.
In this connection, Provincial Minister of Agriculture Syed Ashiq Hussain Kirmani while addressing a conference on the cotton research and development at Agriculture House here Friday said that Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has a clear vision of introducing reforms in the research and development system. Various steps are being taken to transform agricultural research according to the contemporary requirements, he added.
He said that due to non-availability of quality seeds, most of the farmers have given up cotton cultivation, which is the reason why cotton cultivation is limited to South Punjab only. Public and private sectors have to work together for recovery in cotton production because if the production of silver fiber is restored, the country’s economy will flourish.
The main objective of the programme is to benefit from the experiences of the public and private sectors for the production of quality cotton seeds. The discovery of climate smart varieties of cotton with high productivity is the need of the hour, he observed.
Punjab Agriculture Secretary Iftikhar Ali Sahu said the cotton crop has been facing various challenges for the last ten years. The public and private sector should offer viable proposals to deal with the challenges faced by the cotton crop. It is indispensable to find a solution to the problem of cotton restoration.
He further said that a plan of action will be prepared in the light of the proposals presented in the conference for the restoration of cotton. Technical opinions of all the participants in the conference should be given full importance, he added.
Provincial agriculture secretary said that the federal government would be contacted to solve the problems at the federal level.Among others, South Punjab Agriculture Secretary Saqib Ali Attil, Dr M Anjum Ali, former caretaker federal minister Kausar Abdullah Malik, DG Agriculture Extension Ch Abdul Hameed, Javed Salim Qureshi, Dr Khalid Hameed, Asif Majeed, Saad Akbar Khan, Syed Hasan Raza, Dr Sagheer Ahmed and other government officials and representatives of the private sector participated in the conference.