‘Technological innovation vital for enhancing crops output’

Islamabad : Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam on Saturday said that technological advancement was imperative in order to increase the cotton per-acre cotton yield in the country.

Talking to a delegation of Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA), he said that his ministry was working on the transfer of Chines Seed Technology for yield-enhancing, besides securing funds to reduce the cost of production to make cotton production a profitable business.

The PCGA delegation apprised the minister about the issues and challenges faced by local cotton sector.

Sohail Javed Chairman PCGA informed that the declining cotton production was affecting ginning sector, the most.

As seed cotton for ginning factories cannot be imported, he said adding that cottonseed cake, a by-product of cotton was used as livestock feed to enhance milk production, is subject to multiple taxes.

They added that other issues like piled-up tax refunds, slower buying of cotton by APTAM, and liquidity issues hampering the ginning sector adversely during the COVID 19 outbreak.

He urged that the Ministry of NFSR must act to resolve their issues and save this sector for further loss.

Syed Fakhar Imam further said that the Ministry would take up the taxation issue with Finance Division and leave no stone unturned to get relief for the ginning sector.

Fakhar Imam asked Chairman Javed and Senior Vice Chairman Asim Shaikh of PCGA to send a set of proposals for modernizing the ginning sector and upgrade technology to improve the quality of lint produced in Pakistan.

The PCGA delegation informed that over 1,300 ginning factories installed across the cotton belt and these ginning factories have the ability to gin 14 million bales but due to short production for the few years, only 800 factories were in operation last year.

It’s a seasonal business and that’s why most of the ginning factories also have oil extraction units to utilize the cottonseed and convert into oil and cottonseed cake.