Staff Reporter
Karachi
Secretary General FPCCI’s Businessmen Panel, Chaudhry Ahmad Jawad on Monday said that from 1985 to 1992, the country witnessed major breakthrough in cotton production and at that time, cotton production increased to 12.8 million bales. It was a paradigm shift, in which Punjab produced 11.4m bales while Sindh produced 1.4m bales. In 2017, cotton production was 11.93m bales which fell to 9.861m in 2018 before slightly recovering to 9.451m in 2019.
Talking to media, he said cotton production in the country is experiencing a declining trend over the past few years, and interestingly Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC) is operating without a full-time chief executive and requisite staff in their different centres.
Similarly Horticulturists of the country are facing challenges in competing with rivals in the international market as the government has not been able to implement a food security policy in order to provide a cushion to the sector in a sustainable manner.
He said that the Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MNFSR) failed to come up the implementation of National Food Security Policy document which was completed in last government tenure despite rich claims.
Highlighting the immense potential for Pakistan in the horticultural sector, Jawad pointed out that the country was the 13th largest producer of kinnows in the world, sixth largest producer of mangoes and fifth largest producer of dates.
