Pakistan government decides to increase its cotton target by 2.86 million bales keeping in view of crop size. Now the revised cotton target is fixed at 15.19 million from the area of 3.128 million hectors for the season 2014-15.

With the aim of invigorating the Pakistan Central Cotton Committee, the decision to reset the cotton target for the season 2014-15 was agreed by the Federal Committee on Cotton agreed to this decision

The target has been divided between major cotton producing areas in Pakistan. Punjab will produce 10.5 million cotton bales from 2.428 million hectares. Sindh will cover 0.650 million hectares to produce around 4.2 million cotton bales. While, Balochistan will produce about 0.4 million cotton bales over 0.050 million hectare and KPK to cover 0.00035 million hectares and produce 0.0015 million cotton bales.

The Cotton Commissioner and Pakistan Central Cotton Committee vice-president Dr Khalid Abdullah said to achieve the new set target for cotton, the new varieties of Bt cotton would be developed the next season which is help boost the production. Also through TEVTA in the country over 500,000 farmers will be given training and the government would also provide the farmers with monthly scholarship.

During the 2014-15 cotton season, Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) plans to grant loans of Rs.15 billion for growers.

The availability of Urea and DAP fertilizers being satisfactory. However, the government has planned to import 125,000 tonnes of urea for the Kharif season and would try to maintain transparency in the mechanism of determining the prices.

To maintain stability in the cotton market, the government has been planning to acquire up to one million bales in the coming season. The ministry is also finalizing plan on providing maximum benefit to farmers where the government would directly purchase seed cotton (phutti) instead of lint cotton from farmers instead of ginners. On finalizing the plan the government would be apprised about it soon.

During the last 10 years, cotton production remained static at around 12 or 13 million bales per annum. Cotton is the keystone of the textile sector which contributes 55 percent to country’s exports. Pakistan to make all efforts to achieve the cotton target set for the 2014-15 season.