ISLAMABAD, Feb 28: Federal Minister for Textile Industry Mushtaq Ali Cheema has said that the task forces will submit their reports latest by March 10 to ensure production of high quality and contamination free cotton.
The government had already constituted three task forces recently for improvement in ginning processing, cotton standardization system and eliminating contamination in cotton production. All stakeholders as well as provincial agriculture ministers were part of the task forces.
Talking to Dawn the textile minister said that the recommendations of the task forces would be implemented expeditiously, starting from the next cotton sowing season. Whether legislation was necessary would be decided in the light of the recommendation of the three panels, he added
Mr Cheema said that the national kitty bore around $2 billion loss annually because of contamination. He was of the opinion that if Pakistan succeeded in eliminating the contamination in the cotton production, the country's export would increase by more than $2 billion without any further investment in the textile sector.
He said that Pakistan producing the best quality of American type cotton-higher grades, medium grades, long staple cotton-but it attracted the cheapest price in the world market due to contamination.
The contamination in cotton at the time of picking and transportation of cotton from field to ginning factories included human hair, leaf, stem and cotton ball, cover cutting, toffee and others eatable covers, birds feather, cloth pieces and coloured yarn, polypropylene twin pieces, jute, polythene pieces, vegetable matter, etc., he added.
The minister said that his ministry has launched an awareness campaign across the country for cotton growers and ginners for production of high quality contamination-free cotton last week.
Elaborating further, the minister said that the awareness programme would mostly include holding of workshops in all districts of Punjab and Sindh to create awareness among growers and ginners about maintaining quality at the time of picking and ginning of cotton.
Besides workshops, he said the officers and inspectors would also be directed to visit cotton fields for providing guidance to workers engaged in picking of cotton.
Answering a question, he said it was needed to amend the Cotton Control Act for obtaining best quality of cotton from fields. He said more cotton fibre testing labs should be established, marking of grade and staple system introduced and research activities increased.
To another question, the minister said that this year the cotton production would be around 15 million bales. Mr Cheema said that the recent rain spell had no effect on the cotton production.