ISLAMABAD: About 2.7 million cotton bales worth Rs.3.5 billion were destroyed during recent flash floods in Sindh province as about 23 cotton growing districts of the province were badly affected due to torrential rains.

Cotton Development Commissioner, Khalid Abdullah told APP here on Wednesday that cotton crop was grown in 23 districts across the province.

Out of these cotton growing districts in the province, seven districts produced 80 per cent of the total crop production and about 74 per cent of the total output was damaged due to recent flash floods in the province, he added.

“Recent damage was bigger than last year's floods when about 2.4 million cotton bales were destroyed across the cotton growing areas in the country. This time 2.7 million bales were damaged alone in Sindh province,” he added.

Abdullah further said that cotton crop was also affected in Punjab where about standing crop over 50,000 acres was damaged due to recent heavy rains.

But, he said that Punjab has surpassed its sowing targets by 100,000 acres during the current cotton crop sowing season which would help to minimize the total out-put loss in the province.

Besides cotton crop other cash crops including sugarcane, onion and green chillies were also badly affected due to floods in these areas, he added.

It may be recalled that the country has set the targets to produce about 15 million cotton bales during the year 2011-12.