Rahim Yar khan-Local cotton ginners said that allowing sale of un-certified and low quality cotton seed will not only decrease the cotton production but also badly damage the national economy.
The national economy is mainly based on cotton, they said. A powerful group has already succeeded in illegal establishment of sugar mills in cotton zones destabilizing cotton production area in favor of sugarcane, they said.
The cotton production has receded from 15 million bales to 9 million bales within couple of years, they said. This has resulted in huge quantity of cotton imports to meet needs of textile industry and drain of billions of dollars foreign exchange, they said.
The amendments in Seed Act are being done to introduce a system of declaring certain seed companies as up to “Standards of Excellence” and such favored seed companies will be illegible to sale un-certified seed of registered varieties as well as seed of unregistered varieties under guise of “Truth-in-Labelling”, they said.
Whereas other seed companies trying to sale certified cotton seed will be punished by rigorous inspection and challans by Seed Inspectors, and eventually pushing them out of business, they said.
The plan is being pushed by Sugar Mafia in collaboration with a multinational seed company that wants to sale its material without certification of seeds, they said.
“Such amendments in Seed Act will pave the way for destruction of cotton farming in Pakistan, ruin the cotton farmers and destroy our economy which is badly based on cotton. This plan will benefit only Sugar Mafia and the multinational company interested to loot the farmers and go away afterwards,” they said.
DRY WEATHER: The Met Office has forecast a dry and cold weather for Bahawalpur during next 24 hours.
The maximum temperature was 20 Centigrade and the lowest remained10 Centigrade degrees.
The Met Office has also forecast a dry weather for other parts of the the region during next 24 hours.
SHUTDOWN: The Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (FESCO) has issued shutdown schedule for Monday due to necessary repair, maintenance and expansion of electricity lines.
According to the schedule issued by the company, power supply from Sangra feeder emanating from 132-KV Lalian grid station will remain suspended from 9am to 1pm while Gojra Road feeder originating from 220-KV Sammundri Road grid station will observe shutdown from 8:30am to 4:30pm on Monday.
EXAMS: Government College University Faisalabad (GCUF) Friday announced admission forms submission schedule for M.A, M.SC part-1/2 second annual examination, 2020 for private and affiliated colleges.
According to schedule candidates can submit online admission forms with single fee till February 13 and with double fee till February 18.Further details were available at university website www.gcuf.edu.pk.