DERA ISMAIL KHAN, April 22: NWFP Food and Agriculture Minister Abeedullah Jan said on Saturday that the government was providing all assistance to cotton growers in the province.

Speaking at a cotton seed distribution ceremony at Paroa, the minister said that cotton was the backbone of the economy which always yielded the maximum foreign exchange for the country.

Enumerating the advantages of the cotton crop, he said it needed less water than wheat or sugarcane and was more profitable than other crops.

Although NWFP’s climate as a whole was not suited to the cotton crop, D.I. Khan’s local climate and soil were suitable for cotton, he pointed out.

The minister said the government was providing cotton seed, planters, riggers and power sprayers at subsidised rates to the cotton growers.

Imtiaz Khan Baloch, the Nazim of Union Council Paroa, thanked the minister for the incentives given to the farmers.

He assured the minister of people’s support in the forthcoming presidential referendum.