Cotton and textile account for about two-thirds of the country's exports and a healthy cotton crop is vital to economic growth, which is expected to slip to around 2.75 percent in the current financial year to June, because of flood damages.
The world's fourth-largest cotton producer had hoped to produce 14 million bales in the 2010/11 crop year before the devastated summer floods last year reduced the output to about 11.70 million bales.
Pakistan achieved record cotton production of 14.6 million bales in 2004/05, but output has been falling since then.
"We are targeting cotton output this season between 15 and 15.5 million bales this year," said Khalid Abdullah, Cotton Commissioner at the food ministry.
"Financial gains made this year are encouraging farmers to grow more cotton and we have penetration even in non-traditional rain-fed areas this season."
Key New York May cotton futures hit a record high of $2.195 per lb on March 7 on supply concerns.
Some U.S. investors, however, expect cotton futures to decline in the weeks ahead with planting of the fiber on the rise around the world.
Cotton spot-rates in Pakistan have tracked U.S. levels higher, touching a peak of 14,000 rupees ($164) per 40 kg this season, from levels above 6,000 rupees per 40 kg last year, said Naseem Usman, chairman of the Karachi-based Cotton Brokers Forum.
A committee of the food ministry tasked to increase output is targeting a sowing area of 8.01 million acres, up 8 percent from the last year, and is working out a plan to prevent pest and virus attacks and ensure seed availability, officials said.
Sowing has already started in the main cotton growing areas of Sindh and Punjab provinces for the new crop year that runs from April to March.
"More and more farmers are seen switching to cotton as both domestic and global prices remain high which is a big incentive for them," Usman said.
Cotton acreage in Pakistan's neighbouring India, the world's second-biggest producer, is seen up 15 percent in 2011/12, according to the Cotton Association of India.
High cotton output this year in Pakistan could help cut reliance on import to feed its textile industry. Annual consumption fluctuates between 14 million bales and 16 million bales.
Pakistan imported 1.45 million bales between July-February, nearly 40 percent up from the same period last year, according to the official Federal Bureau of Statistics.
Industry officials say the total import would reach two million bales by end-June, when supplies from the new domestic crop start trickling in.
