The Punjab Additional Secretary of Agriculture emphasised the need for increased field staff mobilization to speed up cotton off-season management through mass contact.
Muhammad Shabbir Ahmad Khan, Additional Secretary Agriculture (Task Force) Punjab, has instructed the provincial agriculture department to step up its current off-season cotton management campaign in order to increase yield.
He said this while presiding over a review meeting of off-season management of cotton at Agriculture House here on Monday. The campaign will also assist in managing harmful pests, particularly Pink Bollworm in the upcoming cotton crop.
While briefing the Additional Secretary of Agriculture, Director General of Agriculture (Extension) Dr. Muhammad Anjum Ali stated that Agricultural Extension staff are managing cotton in the off-season in accordance with their goals.
In addition to this, a special awareness campaign is also underway for farmers, and announcements are also being made in mosques, urging them to store their cotton sticks on their Deras in small bundles and stack them so that the bases point down, destroying any vermilions and larvae that may be present due to sunlight.
In addition, after a fifteen-day interval, the larvae of infested Bollworms are separated, destroyed, and kept turning the pellet piles upside down. Additionally, cotton tenders, seeds, waste, and other items must be collected and destroyed by ginning factory owners.
Farmers are instructed, as part of an awareness campaign, to wash stored cotton seeds in warehouses or stores with ammonium phosphide in order to kill any Pink Bollworms that may be present because they are hibernating.
The Punjab Additional Secretary of Agriculture (Task Force) emphasised the need for increased field staff mobilization to speed up cotton off-season management through mass contact.
Later, the Additional Secretary Agriculture Task Force stressed the importance of tracking and traceability for the supply of fertilizer to farmers at a set price and gave the go-ahead to take legal action against anyone engaged in illegal marketing or overcharging.
Along with other officers, Chaudhry Imtiaz, Additional Secretary Agriculture (Task Force), South Punjab, Rana Faqir Ahmad, Director Agricultural Information, Punjab; Muhammad Rafiq Akhtar, and Chaudhry Shahbaz Akhtar, Director Agriculture (Extension), Sahiwal, attended the meeting.