The first meeting of the Cotton Committee has proposed to accelerate the work in respect of the Seed Amendment Act, which would necessitate introduction of cotton varieties that are virus resistant, to give the institutions that introduce such new varieties of cotton a share in marketing rights and other incentives and working on private partnership basis.
The Committee had been constituted in adherence with the directives of the President.
Nazar M Gondal, Former Minister for Food & Agriculture, who presided over the meeting stated that, white fly and Cotton Leaf Curl Virus (CLCV) remain to be major threats for cotton crop in the country, particularly in Punjab, and thus urged the scientists to develop virus resistant varieties of cotton.
It was resolved at the meeting to provide research institutes that develop new virus resistant varieties of crops with a major share in marketing rights, apart from giving bonus to individual scientists for encouraging research activities in the country.
With an aim to raise the country's cotton production to 16 million bales per annum to fully meet the demand of the domestic industry, the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) has proposed to finance research activities in association with the public sector.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) has been delegated the responsibility of importing germ plasma of different cottonseed varieties from various countries and to locally develop varieties of crop which are virus resistant.
Moreover, the meeting even discussed the prospects of exploring new regions in Punjab and Balochistan for cotton cultivation.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
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