Agriculture Director Shahid Hussain said that the department was utilizing all available resources for a bumper yield of the cotton crop in the division. Talking to APP here on Tuesday, he said that the cotton crop had been cultivated on 209,000 acres in the division this year and it was sown on 132,000 acres the previous year, which was 19.37 percent more than last year. He said that this year 19.37 maund per acre cotton production was expected in the division due to favorable weather conditions and following guidelines of the agriculture department by cotton growers while 17.72 maunds per acre cotton was recorded last year. “This year, more than 339,000 bales of cotton were expected in the division while last year 189,000 bales were produced, he added. Shahid Hussain said that a total of 838 insect hotspots had been identified by field teams of the agriculture department in the division while 1,369 hotspots by insects were treated. “Eight Kissan Sahulat Centers were set up for farmers in the division and 11,766 cotton growers visited the centers and pesticides worth Rs 32.8 million were sold and an ample stock of pesticides was available in the ‘Kissan Sahulat Centers.’ A total of 48 ginning factories for bales are in the division out of which 27 are in working conditions while 94 bales have been processed so far, he added.