November 23, 2001	Friday	Ramazan 7, 1422

KARACHI, Nov 22: Cotton Crop Assessment Committee has scaled down its earlier estimate for cotton production in the country from 10.8 to 10.4 million bales for the current season.

This decision was taken at the fourth meeting, held under the chairmanship of the Advisor to the Chief Executive on Food, Agriculture and Livestock M. Shafi Niaz at Karachi Cotton Association here on Thursday.

The meeting was attended by the TCP chairman, PCCC vice-chairman, senior officials of Cotton Research Institutes, Multan, Faisalabad and Sakrand, representatives of the provincial agriculture departments, Aptma, PCGA, KCA and the growers’ members both from Sindh and Punjab.

While reviewing the situation of the current cotton crop on the basis of information and data from Sindh and Punjab, the committee felt that after pest attack in Punjab and water shortage in Sindh the cotton production is likely to decline by 400,000 bales, mostly in Punjab.

The meeting was told that almost 10 per cent of the cultivated area under cotton was ploughed up by farmers after first picking in major cropping areas of Punjab. Similarly, there were reports of pest attack on the standing crop.—APP