CM Punjab to Announce Special Awards for Cotton Revival Efforts

Caretaker Punjab Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi is set to announce special awards to acknowledge the contributions of those pivotal in the revival of the cotton industry in the province. Commissioner Dr. Ehtasham Anwar Mahaar revealed that Bahawalpur has achieved a new record for cotton crop production. Official statistics for cotton sowing and harvesting in the current year indicate that Bahawalpur has surpassed all previous records, cultivating the crop across an expansive 2,132,000 acres. This surpasses the previous record of 2,102,000 acres set by the Multan division in 2006. Out of the total 4,802,000 acres sown in Punjab this year, the Bahawalpur division claims a significant share, exceeding 44 percent. Cotton, one of the most critical cash crops of the country, has shown a strong rebound after years of decline and posted a 65 percent cut in production from 2014-2022. The revival has a strong contribution from a new generation of triple gene Cotton cultivars that have made possible the resistance against pink bollworm and glyphosate herbicide but challenges still remain from whitefly attacks and climate change which needs further efforts into R&D and innovative crop practices. According to the latest arrival reports, nearly 6 million bales of Cotton have already arrived at ginning factories with 2.54 million bales (42 percent) from Punjab and 3.54 million bales (57 percent) from Sindh. However, the country is set to miss the production target of 12.7 million bales as the federal government already adjusted it to 11.7 million last year and independent analysts put the figure at 10 million bales.