Pakistan's cotton vision programme envisages production upto 15 million bales by the year 2010, official sources told APP here on Tuesday. The government intends to facilitate all the stakeholders, particularly the growing community, through both the price and non-price measures to safeguard their interests. According to sources, the cotton policy has been devised to offer a package of fiscal, technological, administrative and legislative measures to boost cotton production, ensure qualitative improvement, facilitate the growers and to safeguard the interest of all the stakeholders.

The policy thus encircles the areas along with the measures to ameliorate the cotton situation in the country.

Introduction of new cotton varieties and certified seed along with genetic base of commercial cotton varieties will greatly help increase per hectare yield and enhance cotton production, the sources added.

Broad genetic base is very important for resistance against viruses and disease and adaptability in various agro-environments.

The new cotton policy envisages these parameters to increase productivity of the most valuable commodity for earning precious foreign exchange, the sources claimed.

It is most important to diversify the genetic base and wide crosses may be attempted for stabilising the cotton varieties to resist disease and commercial adaptability.

For this purpose, the policy proposed that the germplasm would be collected from all cotton growing countries.

The government realised the necessity of continuing the support price mechanism for cottonseed in order to safeguard the growers' interest.

The rise in cost of key farm inputs and wide fluctuations in cost of HSD necessitated that government should review the support price of cotton.

Cotton is the lifeline of Pakistan's economy. Enhancing its volume and value has thus invariably remained the focal point in the national agricultural research and development strategies.

As a matter of fact, the economic significance of the cotton crop and the necessity to boost its production was realised soon after the independence, which led to the establishment of the Pakistan Central Cotton Committee in 1948 for the improvement and development of the growing, marketing and manufacture of cotton, the sources added.

Over the years, there has been significant improvement in cotton production in the country. The quantum of cotton production has moved up sizeably to over 10 million bales. The country is also producing long staple cotton of 1-1/8" and even longer.

The area under cotton has also increased considerably to about 3 million hectares and the expansion in cotton production has been instrumental in proliferation of the textile industry.

Currently, Pakistan is the third largest cotton consuming country in the world.

Copyright Associated Press of Pakistan, 2005