MULTAN, March 23: The government has been urged to encourage ridge sowing in cotton areas to combat the water crisis looming large for the coming kharif season.

Talking to Dawn here on Saturday, former NA speaker Syed Fakhar Imam said ridge sowing saved water upto 30 to 40 per cent for cotton crop which needed water from 20 to 25 inches to grow.

He said the government should launch a ridge sowing campaign at markaz or union council level to inform cotton growers about its benefits. It also helped water conservation and greater freedom in pesticides applications, he said.

The Indus River System Authority (IRSA) was anticipating 47 to 62 per cent water shortage during the kharif 2002-2003, he said.

Mr Imam urged the government to promote the breeding of high-yielding varieties of cotton which should be CLCV-resistant. The cotton production reached at its peak of 12.8m bales in 1991-92, but the lack of high-yielding virus-resistant varieties had been an important factor in lowering its production.

The government should ascertain why commercially available high-yielding and virus-resistant varieties could not be produced in the last decade. “This issue is highly important as 62 per cent of the country’s total export based on cotton and its products,” he added.