17 October 2004	Sunday	02 Ramazan 1425

MULTAN, Oct 16: Federal Agriculture Minister Sikandar Hayat Bosan said on Saturday the country's cotton production might touch 11.6 million bales' mark in 2004-05, and added that the option of exporting the silver fibre was under consideration.

Talking to a group of newsmen at the circuit house, he said although a production target of 10.7 million bales was fixed, a recent meeting of the Federal Committee on Agriculture assessed that the country might get 11.6 million bales this year.

Mr Bosan, however, added that the final assessment would be made at a Cotton Crop Assessment Committee (CCAC) meeting in which all stakeholders of cotton economy would be present.

He said the production target for rice also had been enhanced from 4.2 million tons to 5.0 million tons.

He asked the cotton growers not to be worried because the federal government was taking steps to keep the cotton market stable and ensure that they got at least the minimum support price of Rs925. The option of exporting cotton was also being considered, he added.

He said the Trading Corporation of Pakistan was purchasing 50,000 bales a day to speed up the procurement and the step had started paying dividends. The situation would improve to the desired level within days.

Criticizing certain elements for painting a bleak picture, the minister said the situation in the market was not that bad. He said a ministerial committee was monitoring the cotton market prices and suggesting steps to ameliorate the situation.

Mr Bosan said the price of phutti ranged between Rs850 and Rs895 in the market in the Punjab and Rs850 and Rs865 in the Upper Sindh areas. He, however, admitted that in lower Sindh, Mirpurkhas, the price was between Rs750 and Rs790 because of the fact that third picking was in operation and that often gave low-quality cotton.

He said there was no upper limit for the procurement of cotton, which would continue by the TCP no matter how high it went till a time growers started getting Rs925 for 40 kilogram of phutti.

According to the federal minister, the prices of herbicides had been reduced by 40 to 50 per cent to encourage farmers apply those in the forthcoming wheat season. These enhanced wheat production by five to six maunds per acre, he added.

He urged the growers to cooperate with the government in its "Grow More Wheat" campaign and advised them to complete 70 per cent of the sowing in November to get maximum benefits in terms of enhanced production.

He said around 30,000 tons of registered wheat seed had been made available in the public and private sectors.

About water scarcity, the minister said the water problem for the wheat crop was being solved.-APP