SANGHAR, Aug 21: Eighteen ginning factories of Sanghar district would produce contamination-free cotton and for this purpose 1,130 growers have been trained.
This was announced in a meeting held here on Tuesday with Zila Nazim Roshan Din Junejo in the chair which was attended by Secretary Agriculture Aftab Ahmed Qureshi, Director General Agriculture Extension Sindh Dr Suleman Qazi and Director Agriculture Ayaz Ali Memon, besides a large number of ginners and growers.
The meeting discussed ways and means to overcome the difficulties in producing contamination-free cotton.
The government has declared Sanghar and Ghotki in Sindh, while Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalnagar in Punjab as contamination-free cotton producing districts.
Director Agriculture Ayaz Ali Memon informed the meeting that presently 64 ginning factories are operating in the district have built cemented floors and platforms while 48 factories also have electronic weigh bridges.
It has been estimated that a total of 435,000 contamination-free bales would be produced from 83,000 hectares of cotton crop during 2002-03.
He further said that a premium of Rs150 per 40-kg would be paid on cotton which contains up to 1.5g contamination per bale, out of this Rs50 would be given to grower and Rs100 to ginner.
Similarly, the bale which contains 2.5g and 3g contamination would get Rs75 and Rs50 and grower would get Rs50 and Rs17 out of it, respectively.
Ayaz said the Pakistan Standardization Institute (PSI) would decide the level of contamination and the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) would be bound to purchase this cotton.
The meeting was further informed that Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda) would help ginners to modernize their pressing machine units. The authority would also send growers and ginners abroad to study cotton growing techniques.
The secretary announced that TCP offices, a branch of PSI and a pesticide and fertilizer testing laboratory would be opened in the district besides four inspectors would also be deputed.