Agri staff warned of action over failure to get cotton target

LAHORE : Punjab Agriculture Secretary Iftikhar Ali Sahoo chaired a meeting at Agriculture House for reviewing efforts regarding sowing of cotton on targeted area in the province.

In the meeting, ongoing field activities for cotton cultivation were reviewed. While giving a briefing on this occasion, Secretary Iftikhar Ali Sahoo was told that cotton cultivation has been completed in Punjab so far on an area of 2.76 million acres, which is 50pc of the cotton target.

On this occasion, Sahoo said that achievement of 4 million acres of cotton cultivation target, all the field formations have been assigned a special task and digital monitoring of their activities is being done.

On this occasion, Sahoo clarified that till May 31st from Director to Field Assistant will ensure the achievement of cotton cultivation target set on daily basis for them. 100% target of cotton cultivation will be achieved, both officer and subordinates will be responsible for not achieving the target of cotton cultivation. Any slackness and negligence in achieving the goal of cotton cultivation will not be tolerated. Show-cause notices will be issued to the targeted officers and personnel who failed to achieve their cotton cultivation target, he said.

He added that the field formations should compile accurate cotton data and speed up the ongoing activities to guide the farmers. Retired field assistants should be hired on a paid basis in areas of shortage of technical staff. On this occasion, Sahoo while giving instructions to the officers said that the working relations with the divisional and district administrations should be strengthened, apart from that information should be exchanged with the officials of the irrigation department on a daily basis regarding the discharge of the canals. The target of cotton cultivation as a challenging task should be achieved by May 31 in any case. Develop and submit actionable proposals in collaboration with the private sector to improve the cotton research process, he said.

He added that the private sector should be persuaded to provide seed loan to the farmers for re-sowing of the cotton that has dried up after the rains. The government is in constant communication with the federal government to ensure availability and availability of fertilisers in abundance during the Kharif season.

Speaking on this occasion, Secretary Agriculture South Punjab Saqib Ali Ateel said through video link that Pink Bollworm may prove to be dangerous for cotton. Field formations have to play a dynamic role for monitoring and control.

Additional Secretary Agriculture Task Force Punjab M Shabir Ahmed Khan, Director General Agriculture Best Warning, Punjab Dr Amir Rasool, Director General Agriculture Crop Reporting Dr Abdul Qayyum, Consultant Agriculture Department Dr Anjum Ali and Director Agriculture Information Punjab Naveed Asmat Kahloon and other officers participated in the meeting. While Secretary Agriculture South Punjab Saqib Ali Ateel, Director General Agriculture Extension Chaudhry Abdul Hameed and all divisional directors participated through video link.