LAHORE, Jan 23: The joint government-Aptma programme to reduce cotton contamination through a supervised ginning project is said to have brought down the level of impurities in cotton to an average five grams a bale of 170kg from 20 grams in four districts of the province.

A leading spinner Gohar Ejaz, who has been associated with the project since its conception last year, told Dawn here on Wednesday that farmers and ginners in Rahim Yar Khan, Lodhran, Sadiqabad and Bahawalpur had done a remarkable job by drastically reducing the level of contamination in cotton produced this year. The four districts together are stated to be producing some three million bales of cotton every year.

“It didn’t involve any costs. It just required cultural change which we, the private sector, and the government assisted them in bringing about by changing their habits of picking, packing, and transporting their fabric to the ginneries,” Gohar said.

The government had implemented the programme in Rahim Yar Khan alone. “However, the farmers of the other districts also followed the lead with the help of the industry to produce better quality cotton,” he said.

Gohar claimed that at least “100 ginneries had participated in the initiative and produced around 250,000 bales with 1-2.5 grams of contamination per bale”.

The textiles industry is giving a premium of Rs75 per maund on cotton with 1-2.5 grams per bale of contamination as an incentive to encourage the farmers to produce contamination free cotton.