The committee has expressed `disappointment' that though the government proposed to launch the mission in the Ninth Plan to give a boost to cotton production, the proposal has still not received the approval of the Planning Commission.

Urging the government to implement the scheme without any further delay, the committee in its report tabled in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, also recommended that under the component schemes of the mission, the financial and physical targets for the current and rest of the years be suitably enhanced to make good the time and opportunity lost so far.

The committee suggested reorientation of the entire strategy for cotton development to be based on assured irrigation to the cotton-growing areas. The key to the whole problem lies in the adoption of watershed-based management approach in a big way and in the provision ofmicro-irrigation systems such as sprinkler and drip irrigation sets, it said.

The committee also expressed concern over disparity in cotton productivity in the same agroclimatic zone. It noted that the average yield per hectare in the cotton growing areas of Pakistan was 602 kilograms in 1995 whereas in the states of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan which fall in the same agroclimatic zone and with the same intensity of irrigation as that of the areas across the border in Pakistan, the average yield per hectare ranged from 338 to 442 kilograms.

When asked to explain this, the government could not tender any convincing reply, the committee said adding that it failed to understand as to how there could be such wide disparity in productivity at two different places in the same agroclimatic zone. Taking serious view of the situation, the committee asked the government to analyse in detail the position and identify the constraints in the matter and chalk out a suitable action plan to boost the productivity ofcotton in the three states.

The committee also stressed that the challenge of increasing productivity should be first addressed at the seed stage. Noting the government's admission that it was a weak link in the entire chain of efforts, it recommended that a comprehensive cotton seed production and supply strategy should be hammered out to meet the demand for certified seeds and the strategy should be implemented from the next sowing season itself.

If necessary, the committee said the government should adopt steps to encourage the private sector also in the production of quality seeds with sufficient incentives and also with adequate monitoring mechanism to ensure that they produce the desired quality of seeds.

The committee also wanted that the working of the state seed producing agencies should be toned up by suitably reviewing their current practices as they had actually failed in producing adequate quantity of certified seeds, despite the availability of breeder seeds in abundance.