Cotton produce better than India despite flood

LAHORE - Provincial Minister for Agriculture, Livestock, Forests and Cooperatives, Malik Ahmed Ali Olakh has said that despite unfavourable condition, average cotton production in Punjab has remained much better than the neighbouring country India. He said that Rawalpindi, Jhelum and Gujranwala districts had been ranked the best for achieving 122 percent, 118 percent and 106 percent target of wheat cultivation, respectively.
He said that preparations are being made on emergency basis for the provision of quality seed for the next cotton crop.
He said the Punjab Agriculture Department has so far successfully achieved 95 percent wheat sowing against a total target of 16.89 million acres of land in the province. He hoped that overall target would be achieved soon.
He said first time in the history, all desirous farmers were being granted loans on the spot on easy terms under one window operation. The minister said that subsidy of billions of rupees was given to the growers for the purchase of agriculture implement, including tractors.
Ahmad Ali Aulakh said fertilizers had been made available to all farmers at their doorsteps. He hoped that production target would be met through proper crop management and plant protection.
He expressed these views while addressing officers of agriculture department at Central Cotton Research Institute Multan.
He said that a policy is being evolved for purchase of wheat while the storage capacity of wheat will be increased to 100,000 ton in Southern Punjab. He added that the government has provided seed to the farmers free of cost for cultivation of wheat at 1 million acres of land.
The Minister said that Punjab government is facing some difficulties due to increasing prices of agriculture inputs and owing to which desired results are not being yielded. He said that recent increase in fertilizer prices is unjustified upon which Punjab government has recorded its protest with federal government and also demanded to reduce the prices immediately.

(Source: http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Business/07-Feb-2011/Cotton-produce-better-than-India-despite-flood)