11 Cotton Seed Varieties To Be Available For Sowing In Next Season

As many as 11 cotton seed varieties comprising on double gene and triple gene would be available for sowing in order to enhance crop output during coming season (2022-23)

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Jan, 2022 ) :As many as 11 cotton seed varieties comprising on double gene and triple gene would be available for sowing in order to enhance crop output during coming season (2022-23).

Out of the total varieties, 07 varieties are with double gene and 03 varieties are of triple gene, which also strengthen the government's efforts for ensuring availability of certified, high yielding seeds for all major crop in the country, said an senior official in the Ministry of National food Security and Research.

Talking to APP here on Wednesday, he said that seed availability figures were based on crop inspection and expected yields, adding that it would be improvised after seed sampling and testing.

He said that over 274.8 metric tons of cotton seed of above mentioned 11 varieties would be available in order to bring about 34,350 acres land under crop cultivation, besides promoting sowing of high-yielding seeds varieties in potential crop producing areas of Sindh and Punjab provinces.

Out of these 11 varieties, he said that 03 were identified for sowing in Sindh and 08 varieties for Punjab, adding that these seed varieties were developed by different institutions and in collaboration with private seeds producing companies for ensuring maximum per-care crop output during the period under review, he added.

He further said that cotton sowing was likely to gain momentum during coming season as growers received proper rate of return of their produces in last season, which was attributed to better incentives and polices to maintain the prices of the commodity in local markets.

Meanwhile, he said that cotton prices remained stable in local markets, as adding that cotton crop intervention policy formed by the government was expired without making any intervention as the prices of commodity remained above the bench mark set at Rs 5,000 per 40 kilogram for last season.

He said that due to proper rate of return and batter crop management practices adopted by the local farming community, cotton production had witnessed about 30% growth despite that the area under crop sowing witnessed about 7% decline during current season.

He said that according to the official figures, local output of cotton crop was estimated at 9 million bales, adding that Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association had reported that over 7.2 million bales have arrived to local ginning mills as against the arrival of same period last year, which was a positive sign for the revival of cotton crop in the country.