Secretary Agriculture Punjab Iftikhar Ali Sahoo has said that cotton cultivation is ongoing in South Punjab on an area of 45 lakh 54 thousand acres, which is 91 percent of the total target of Punjab province.
The district administration is also using all resources to achieve the target of cotton sowing. These views were expressed while Secretary Agriculture, Punjab was presiding over a meeting held to review the status of cotton cultivation.
Commissioner Multan Division Aamir Khattak, Deputy Commissioner Multan Umar Jahangir, Deputy Commissioner Khanewal, Deputy Commissioner Vehari, Deputy Commissioner Lodhran, Secretary Agriculture South Punjab Saqib Ali Ateel, Additional Secretary Agriculture (Task Force), South Punjab Imtiaz Ahmad Waraich, Director General Agriculture ( Extension) Dr. Anjum Ali, Director General Agriculture (Pest Warning), Rana Faqir Ahmed, Deputy Director Agriculture Information, Directors and Deputy Directors Agriculture and other stakeholders participated.
Agriculture Secretary Punjab said that all the institutions have to fulfill their responsibility under the national spirit to achieve the cotton cultivated area and production target.
In Multan Division cotton will be sown 0.1269 million acre while in Bahawalpur division 0.2314 million acres and in DG Khan division an area of 0.971 million acres is being brought under cotton cultivation.
He further said that during the cotton season, the agriculture department of South Punjab field staff will provide all possible facilities to the farmers to achieve the target of cotton cultivation. It was told in the meeting that so far, cotton has been cultivated on an area of more than 0.533 million acre in multan division.
On this occasion, Secretary Agriculture, Punjab gave instructions to ensure the availability of quality agricultural inputs in the market during the cotton season and to prepare a record of information related to the dealers of fertilizers, seeds and agricultural drugs in each district of the cotton zone. On this occasion, Secretary Agriculture South Punjab Saqib Ali Ateel proposed to increase the number of facility centers established for cotton at the district level, to which the Secretary Agriculture Punjab agreed and issued orders to the relevant formations. Monitoring responsibilities have also been assigned to the staff of the Department of Agriculture.
