A Senate committee was informed on Thursday that the government had set the target of planting cotton on an area of 3.28 million hectares and production of 15.02 million bales for the year 2019-20.
Senate’s Standing Committee on National Food Security and Research met at Parliament House with Senator Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah in the chair. Seemee Zaidi, Mir Kabeer Shahi, Najma Hameed, the National Food Security and Research minister, the National Food Security and Research secretary, the PASSCO managing director and the Federal IRSA nember attended the meeting.
On the matter of regularization of 64 posts of three projects in Balochistan moved by Senator Mir Kabeer Ahmed Shahi, the ministry said that the projects ended in June 2018 and the advertisement clearly stated that the contract would end when the project ended and there would be no permanent job.
The committee directed the ministry to devise a mechanism that these people who had experience in working might be given preference as and when any regular vacancies were announced if they met other requisite qualifications. The committee also recommended continuation of the project if there was any need for the province. The PASSCO MD told the meeting that torrential rains and hailstorms at the critical time of near harvesting not only damaged the standing crop, but per acre yield was also affected. The National Food Security and Research secretary was requested to approach the Ministry of Law and Justice for filing a review petition for a one-time waiver to its decision of banning allotment of land in the matter of construction of godowns in Umerkot district. The committee also recommended carrying out aerial spray in areas of Sindh and Balochistan where cotton crops faced pest attacks. Earlier, the Special Committee on Agriculture proposed to impose duty on cotton import and move a summary for support price. In this regard, the committee was informed that summaries had been sent to concerned departments and views were also sought from the Ministry of Commerce and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). The committee also recommended holding meetings of the Pakistan Central Cotton Committee more frequently preferably on a quarterly basis.
The committee was informed that as of now, 1,440 posts were vacant in the ministry and all of its attached departments with 820 vacancies from BPS 1-15 and 620 vacancies of BPS 16-22 and the process of filling vacancies was ongoing. The committee recommended advertising the posts in national as well as regional newspapers to ensure people from all areas got the opportunity.
Regarding availability of water, the committee was informed by IRSA that total reservoirs were 2.512 million acre feet against 1.818 million acre feet in last year. “There is no shortage of water. The anticipated water availability this year is 47.77 million acre feet against 39.40 last year,” officials said.
The prices of fertilizers available in market were also discussed. The committee noted that farmers were being made to earn less with more cost of production for cotton crop and hence they were shifting to more profitable crops.
