Cotton cluster villages would be established in the near future to boost the crop while guaranteeing contemporary technology, said Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam on Monday.
He told a news conference at the Central Cotton Research Institute (CCRI) said cotton was a very profitable crop that helped the country’s economy and provided work opportunities for millions of people. He stated that one million bales contributed approximately Rs97.5 billion in revenue, and that the government had set a target of 10 million bales for the current season.
Pakistan used to export textile products worth over $15 billion annually. Last year, the country had to import 4.5 million bales of cotton for the local industry. The government is paying keen attention to white gold (cotton) and hopefully cotton would become a strategic crop in the future, he stated. He said modern farming techniques would be introduced to motivate other farmers.
The minister said that the government was striving to enhance cotton production. He said special focus is on seed quality, enhancing sowing area, mechanisation and upgrading the research institutes. Imam suggested to the farmers to ensure clean picking of cotton so that they could fetch handsome prices for their produce. Climate change and pest attacks were the main causes for the decline in production, he said.
