KARACHI, Dec 21: The government has fixed cotton production target of 12.5 million bales for current season (2006-07), with a major chunk of around 10.05 million bales to be produced by Punjab, followed by Sindh 2.35 million bales, and Balochistan and NWFP 0.1 million bales.

During the second meeting of the cotton crop assessment committee (CCAC), presided over by the Minister for Food, Agriculture and Livestock (MINFAL), Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan, on Thursday, the committee members were unanimous in their estimate that the size of the current year cotton crop would be around 12.5 million bales.

The meeting was held in the Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC) office and was attended by the stakeholders belonging to the public and private sector.

The committee also reviewed the current cotton situation and noted that cotton arrival as on December 15 was estimated at 10.228 million bales as against 10.219 million bales on the same date last year, thus showing an increasing trend.

Based on the feed-back provided by the provincial agriculture departments and the private sector stakeholders, the committee members unanimously placed this year’s cotton crop size at 12.5 million bales.

However, it is expected that the country will produce larger cotton crop over the last year when it was placed at 12.6 million bales while working out the GDP.

The committee also expressed satisfaction over the prevailing prices of seed cotton being availed by growers which were much higher than the intervention price level of Rs1025 per 40 kgs.