ISLAMABAD, April 15: The government has launched a programme for production of contamination free cotton to boost country exports and meet the growing challenges of the international market.
The provincial governments have been directed to take all necessary measures to ensure production of high quality contamination free cotton.
According to official sources, the provincial governments have been advised to exercise their powers and ban the use of jute and polypropylene bags for transportation of seed cotton.
The arrival of seed cotton into the ginning factories must be in cotton cloth bags or open trollies and market committees of the selected districts should be mobilized effectively to check contamination of cotton by traders during storage.
Weighing bridges should be installed in the ginning factories of selected districts, the order said.
Furthermore, Pakistan Cotton Standardization Institute (PCSI) has established sub-offices in the selected districts of Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan for effective implementation of the cotton standardization system for the production of high quality contamination-free cotton and to provide PCSI services at the doorsteps of cotton growers and ginners.
The PCSI sub-offices shall have to supervise the implementation of cotton standardization system and the technical requirements for the production of high quality contamination free cotton of the ginners under the jurisdiction of that sub-office.
PCSI shall implement cotton standardization system and the prescribed procedures for the production of high quality contamination-free cotton at the selected ginning factories through trained cotton selectors.
PCSI official based at sub-offices shall conduct classification of lint cotton and issue lint cotton quality certificate for each ginner lot.
PCSI shall provide each selected ginning factory with a set of seed cotton grade boxes on demand and PCSI official based at the sub-offices will check the contamination levels in cotton bales.
The problem of contamination in raw cotton continues to be the most serious problem affecting the cotton spinning industry. The government being cognizant of the issue has decided to overcome the problem in order to fully transform, introduce cotton standardization system for the production of high quality contamination free cotton, so as to restore its credibility in the international market and fetch its real intrinsic value.
The ginning factories in the districts of Rahimyar Khan where PCSI prescribed procedures for the production of high quality contamination-free cotton had been fully adopted the contamination level ranged between 0.74 to 1.97 grams per bale.
Keeping in view the success of the implementation of cotton Standardization System for the production of high quality contamination-free cotton in the season 2001-02 it was decided to extend the same model to two more districts that is Sanghar (Sindh) Bahawalpur (Punjab) and whole of Balochistan.
For the effective implementation of system PCSI has established sub-offices at the selected districts of Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan for the production of high quality contamination-free cotton.—APP
