MULTAN, Sept 23: Punjab minister for agriculture Malik Ahmad Ali Aulakh said on Tuesday that 500,000 tons of urea fertilisers was being imported from Saudi Arabia to fill the demand-supply gap and to ensure that growers should not face shortage problem at the time of next wheat crop.

Presiding over a meeting of the Cotton Crop Management Group (CCMG) here, he said that 42,000 tons of urea had already reached the country. He said that domestic production of urea stands at 4.8 million tons against a national demand of 5.4 million tons.

He attributed the recent fertilisers shortage problem to the demand-supply gap that necessitated import of 500,000 tons of urea from Saudi Arabia to avoid chances of its recurrence during Rabi season. He said that to promote mechanised farming and enhance growers’ income, government was providing 10,000 tractors to them with a subsidy relief of Rs200,000 on each tractor.

A project has also been approved to offer agriculture tools to growers at low price carrying a subsidy of 75 per cent, the minister disclosed.

Earlier, the meeting discussed cotton crop situation and termed it satisfactory with prospects of better production of silver fibre despite water shortage problem and reduction in cotton-sown area in Punjab.

Cotton-sown area lagged 11.6 per cent behind the sowing target this year and was 8.2 per cent less than the last year’s cultivated area. However, number of plants per acre have increased by 1.5 per cent and number of bolls per plant by nine per cent this year as compared to last year, indicating prospects of a better cotton production in Punjab.—APP