‘Protecting growers interest key to lint production growth’

Post Source: Daily Times (July 3, 2009)

By Razi Syed

KARACHI: There is dire need of protecting the interest of lint growers in Pakistan as country witnessed four consecutive years of declining production, member Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) said Thursday.

A senior member KCA, Ghulam Rabbani said in Pakistan, the challenge was to raise virtually static cotton production for the last many years.

He said since 2004-05, the projected targets for cotton yields were not being met due to continuing crop losses and poor government policies.

He said bollworm and Curl Leaf Cotton Virus (CLCV) played havoc with crops in many areas of the country.

“The use of counterfeit pesticides and supply of poor quality seed to farmers in the name of BT cotton variety has already destroyed our cotton production” Rabbani added.

He said All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) and growers were continuously requesting the authorities to bring latest agriculture technologies in cotton so that Pakistan could regain its lost position in the world as a leading cotton producer.

Cotton is an important cash crop for Pakistan and it accounts for 8.2 percent of the value added in the agriculture sector and about 2 percent to GDP, adds over $2.8 billion to the national economy.

He said Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) should discuss contents of the signed recently with a two member Chinese follow up mission headed by Qiquan Zhang, Director General, Agri Division, Xinjiang Production and Corporation for implementing technology in Punjab and Sindh for growing BT Cotton.

The scientist should start trial production to assess the BT genes behavior in Pakistan’s soil conditions and climate.

Monsanto is the world industry leader in GM cotton seeds and this technology has given sound results in areas as diverse as India, Brazil, China and Australia.

According to agreement, initially 800 acre land would be used by Chinese at farmers field, out of which 400 acre would be used by applying drip irrigation method and 400 by applying sprinkler irrigation method.

The PARC would monitor all research activities being carried out through joint venture for production of colored and white cotton at large scale, he added.

Germ Plasm of Hybrid BT colour cotton and inter specific hybrids need to be acquired from China and production technology to be tested at five sites selected by Chinese on coloured and white cotton at large scale at farmer’s field.

Anotheerr international company, Monsanto has planed to bring in Pakistan the latest cottonseed technology (BG-II and RRF), currently only available in USA and Australia.

Tolerance to CLCV is critical for any germplasm to succeed in Pakistan.

The approval process of BT cotton has taken long, growers have started importing poor quality and smuggled BT seed.

This led to use of smuggled seed in Punjab by almost 60 percent. The pirated varieties are not developed for Pakistan’s agronomic conditions and do not perform well, especially against mealy bugs and CLCV.

Post Source: Daily Aajkal urdu news paper

July 4, 2009 (Daily Aajkal)

Post Source: Daily Aajkal urdu news paper

July 4, 2009 (Daily Aajkal)

Sugarcane, rice and cotton : Govt to announce intervention prices shortly

Post Sources: Daily Times (July 4, 2009)

By Ijaz Kakakhel

ISLAMABAD: Following the success of timely announcement of intervention price in case of wheat, the government plans to expand the support price for other major crops including sugarcane, rice and cotton.

The government expects that through announcing support prices for these products would enable the country to get maximum production of main crops. The proposal of announcing support price for sugarcane, rice and cotton would be discussed in the Cabinet Committee on Agriculture scheduled to meet on July 6 sources said.

Officials of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (Minfa) were of the view that price intervention of major crops would help the country to ensure food security. Major components of food security basket for Pakistan include wheat, rice, maize, sugar, pulses, edible oil and livestock products. The officials claimed that timely announcement of wheat support price greatly helped the government in attaining 24 million tonnes wheat production in 2008-09 with public sector wheat procurement was 9.22 million tonnes. However, due to lack of proper storage facilities, there was a problem handling these wheat stocks. More than 50 percent of wheat stock was stored in open areas. Officials said that MINFA had convened a meeting on 10th of this month to discuss the demand, allocation, lifting of wheat for the year 2009-10.

The production of rice remained 6.952 million tonnes and total country’s requirement was 2.500 million tonnes, thus the net exportable surplus was 4.452 million tonnes. The Maize production remained 4.040 million tonnes against the domestic requirement of 3.3 million tonnes, showing 0.740 million tonnes.

The officials further explained that production of gram remained 0.760 million tonnes against the local requirement of 0.600 million tonnes, showing a surplus production of 0.160 million tonnes for the year 2009-10. The country got 0.157 million tonnes of Mung production against the domestic requirement of 0.102 million tonnes showing 0.055 million tonnes surplus production.

However, the production of sugar, masur and mash remained below the country requirements. The production of sugar remained 3.2 million tonnes. Total availability (production + carry over stock) remained 4.399 million tonnes and the shortfall remained as 0.099 million tonnes. The production of masur remained 0.021 million tonnes during the year 2009-10 against the country’s requirement 0.050 million tonnes, showing a net shortfall of 0.028 million tonnes. The production of mash recorded shortfall by 0.031 million tonnes. Total production of mash remained 0.013 million tonnes while the domestic requirement was 0.045 million tonnes.

The production of edible oil remained 0.833 million tonnes while the country needed 3.056 million tonnes and shortfall remained as 2.223 million tonnes.

The crops availability situation revealed that the country had stable food security situation and expanding intervention prices for sugarcane, rice and cotton. To ensue food security, the farm inputs including seed, fertilizer, credit, herbicides/ pesticides etc should be made available at affordable, the officials maintained.

The officials expressed the need for development of water sector through construction of dams and improvement of canals and water courses.