MULTAN, Oct 24: The meeting of the Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA), which was scheduled to be held on October 25 (Saturday) in Islamabad, has reportedly been called off.

October 29 is fixed as the next date to convene the FCA meeting to discuss the ongoing cotton crises in the country. The FCA is considered as the apex forum to discuss matters relating to the agriculture.

Federal and provincial agriculture ministers and secretaries constitute the FCA. Earlier, the meeting of the Standing Committee on Cotton Crop Assessment (SCCCA), which was scheduled to be held on October 20 in Multan, had been postponed for an indefinite period under the pretext that first the provinces should inform the FCA about their respective expected cotton crop size and then the SCCCA would come out with its own assessment in the light of provincial estimates.

Though no definite reason could be learnt behind the postponement of the FCA meeting, a source in the agriculture ministry told Dawn that it had to be done on the request of the provinces. He said the cotton growing provinces sought some more time to “realistically” assess the damage caused to the cotton crop by the pests attack and non-availability of pesticides at the crucial stage.

He said the other reason, which compelled the ministry to put off the FCA meeting, might be the meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet to be held on Saturday.

Meanwhile, some reliable sources told Dawn that Agriculture Minister Yar Muhammad Rind and Secretary Salik Nazeer Ahmed had been summoned by the presidency on October 27 to give briefing on the cotton crisis this year.