TOBA TEK SINGH, Jan 14: The country is producing only 10 million cotton bales a year against a need of at least 12 million, said Punjab agriculture secretary Arif Nadeem at a seminar here.

According to a press release issued here on Tuesday, the secretary disclosed that the area under cotton crop in Toba Tek Singh, Jhang, Sahiwal, Faisalabad, Pakpattan and Okara districts was much more in 1991-92. The provincial government, he added, was preparing a plan to take the production to the 1991 level in these districts.

He said the provincial government had earmarked Rs70 million for setting up a citrus research centre in the current financial year.

The district Nazim said his government was ready to provide land for the project.

He urged the agriculture secretary to activate his department and provide motorcycles to the field staff. He announced that the district government would set up a 250-acre nursery to supply saplings to farmers at a nominal price.

The district Nazim proposed that tractors should be provided to farmers on easy instalments and urged the secretary for agriculture to prepare seeds for farmers on department’s farm in Gojra.

Representatives of cultivators demanded in their speeches that sales tax on fertilisers and pesticides be withdrawn, sufficient irrigation water be provided, prices of crops be announced before the start of sowing season and provision of pesticide-spraying machines be subsidized.

Director-General (Agricultural Research) Chaudhry Abdul Ghaffar, Director (Cotton) Dr Noorul Islam, EDO (Finance) Tariq Najeeb Najmi and DCO Salim Akhtar Kiani also attended the seminar.