MULTAN, Aug 24: The Punjab has urged the federal government to impose ban on the import of cotton till March next to ensure better price to domestic growers.

This was stated by provincial Agricultural Minister Khursheed Zaman Qureshi at a press conference here on Saturday.

He said the ban on import would help avoid cotton glut in the local market which would cast a pleasant impact on phutti (seed cotton) prices.

Mr Qureshi claimed that the government was laying special emphasis on cotton marketing this year. The enhanced official procurement price of Rs800 per maund of phutti had been announced well ahead of the season, he added.

He said besides Rahim Yar Khan the contamination free cotton would be produced in Bahawalpur as well. He assured that premium price would be given to the growers for helping to produce contamination free cotton in the two districts.

He announced that a premium of Rs150 per maund would be given on lint having 1.5 gram contamination, Rs75 for 2.5 gram contamination and Rs50 for 3 gram contamination.

He said ginners would be bound to shift one-thirds benefit of the premium to growers.

He hailed the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) for taking initiative to bring reforms in the ginning sector by introducing modern machinery for the purpose.

He said the cotton control act had been promulgated throughout the province and by the year 2004 only such ginning factories would be allowed to function which would have installed sawgins of latest make.

Mr Qureshi said 120 people had been arrested this year during a campaign against adulteration in pesticides as compared to the 40 arrests last year. Though last year 1,450 pesticide samples were obtained while this year only 750.

He claimed that the lottery schemes in the sale of pesticides had been totally done away with and no-one in future could exploit the farming community.

The minister said the cotton crop in the province was under severe attack of spotted and pink bollworms. He asked growers to be vigilant over the pest situation. He suggested twice-a-week spray of pesticides to get rid of pests.

He said except Rajanpur and Sadiqabad canal water was available in abundance in the Punjab. Replying to a question, he said next year a cold storage would be established at the Lahore airport for the export of fresh fruit and vegetables, including mango. He said this year about 400 tons of mangoes had been exported from Multan.

Earlier, the minister presided over the weekly meeting of cotton crop management group (CCMG). To a complaint during the meeting, he sought report from the irrigation department within two days regarding shortage of irrigation water in Rahim Yar Khan district.