Caretaker Punjab Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi has said that cotton is not only the important part of the country’s export but a source of income for farmers.
He said this in his message issued on the World Cotton Day, here on Saturday. The CM said that cotton provides raw material for preparing various items related to clothes, industrial items, household products, etc.
Mohsin Naqvi said that the Cotton Day was being observed to highlight the significance of cotton besides finding solutions to problems of the cotton industry. He said, “Many countries have taken seed from Pakistan and increased their cotton yield, but unfortunately we lagged behind in seed development.”
“Once the country got self-sufficiency in cotton, but today we import cotton to meet our needs,” he added.
The caretaker CM said that universities in the country needed to do more work on cotton research. He said that after 10 years, during the ongoing year, cotton in Punjab was cultivated on more than 5 million acres of land.
Mohsin Naqvi said that the Punjab government took timely decisions and gave incentives to farmers and ensured cultivation of more $3 billion to that import bill did not increase like previous years.
There was a need to provide modern technology and quality pesticides. The CM also stressed setting up cotton clusters to ensure value addition and boost the income. Cotton crop could be a economic game-changer for farmers and the province, he added.
