LAHORE, June 13: Cotton has been sown on 5.6 million acres in Punjab — around 90 per cent of target area of 6.3 million acres fixed for the Kharif crop. The agriculture research director-general stated this at a meeting of the Cotton Crop Management Group held on Tuesday with Punjab Agricultural Task Force additional secretary Capt Ata Muhammad Khan (retired) in the chair.

He said the area was 5 per cent less than the area brought under crop last year.

Capt Ata said cotton had been re-sown on 51,167 acres after being damaged due to heavy rains. Overall sowing position was satisfactory but maximum sowing had been switched over to June contrary to previous trend.

He stressed the need for achieving the sowing target at the earliest and directed the cotton zone district officers to guide the farmers. He stressed on ensuring availability of pesticides throughout the season.

The Pest Warning and Pesticide Quality Control director-general said whitefly population was likely to increase on spring crops and cotton due to prevailing hot weather. The crop was also threatened with widespread cotton leaf curl virus as its incidence was already higher than the previous year. The farmers should conduct pest scouting twice a week for effective control of cotton bollworms, especially Helicoverpa and Armyworm. —Reporter