Cotton crop has developed reasonably well under largely favorable conditions. Most of the the crop is now reaching near maturity and harvesting is expected to pick up with every passing week. However persistent reports of pest infestations have continued and growers have tried their best to curtail their spread. Pink boll worm incidence has also been reported in lower Sindh. In Punjab, attack of various insect pests and diseases such as white fly, thrips, Mealy Bug, Army worm, pink boll warm and clcuv has been reported. Incidence of white fly and pink boll worm has been reported at above economic threshold level. Please find below weekly pest scouting report:
Growers are getting seed cotton prices around 2,700 – 3,000/40 kg, depending on quality. With plantings around 14% higher than last year, there was expectation that cotton production figures would reflect this increase.
However persistent pest infestations have been not conducive and current private production estimates have ranged between 12 – 12.5 Million bales, with some pessimistic estimates even lower. Government’s official estimated production figure is 12.6 Million bales, details of which are as below:
