Labourers harvest cotton in a field. Reuters/File
With the country missing out on the cotton sowing target for the 2021-22 season, stakeholders maintain the crop can only be revived if work is done to make it financially lucrative to the farmers.
Cotton was sown on 1.96 million hectares of land against a target of 2.32m hectares fixed for the 2021-22 season. Both Punjab and Sindh missed their plantation targets by 25.7 per cent and 16.7pc, respectively.
During the 2020-21 season, the cotton crop was planted on 2.079m hectares, showing a contraction of 17.4pc over the previous year’s 2.517m hectares.
Since 1986-87, cotton has been planted on an area above or close to 2.428m ha, reaching a high of 3.19m ha in 2004-05. The country harvested 14.26m bales in 2004-05, compared to just 5.57m bales in 2020-21 a whooping 61pc decline in the last 16 years.
Separate budget for South Punjab to address deprivation, says Qureshi
June 28, 2021
MULTAN: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday said that the PTI-led government has come up with a separate budget for South Punjab for the first time in the country’s history.
The comments came during a press conference the foreign minister held after visiting the South Punjab Secretariat. He said that work on the city’s master plan is underway, while a separate budget of Rs186 billion has been set aside for South Punjab as per the government s promise, adding that the budget will solve the long-standing deprivation that the region had been facing.
June 28, 2021
MULTAN: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday said that the PTI-led government has come up with a separate budget for South Punjab for the first time in the country’s history.
The comments came during a press conference the foreign minister held after visiting the South Punjab Secretariat.
He said that work on the city’s master plan is underway, while a separate budget of Rs186 billion has been set aside for South Punjab as per the government’s promise, adding that the budget will solve the long-standing deprivations that the region had been facing.
The minister added that in case the allocated money is not spent on a certain scheme, it will be utilised for another scheme in South Punjab.
June 28, 2021
MULTAN: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday said that the PTI-led government has come up with a separate budget for South Punjab for the first time in the country s history.
The comments came during a press conference the foreign minister held after visiting the South Punjab Secretariat.
He said that work on the city s master plan is underway, while a separate budget of Rs186 billion has been set aside for South Punjab as per the government s promise, adding that the budget will solve the long-standing deprivations that the region had been facing.
The minister added that in case the allocated money is not spent on a certain scheme, it will be utilised for another scheme in South Punjab.
Separate budget for South Punjab will address its deprivations: FM Qureshi geo.tv - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from geo.tv Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.