Pakistan Kissan Board has demanded of the government to direct the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to immediately intervene in the cotton market and start buying phutti to stabilise cotton prices.
The general council of Pakistan Kissan Board held an emergency meeting under the chairmanship of Zafar Hussain here on Sunday and condemned government's apathy towards the farmers plight by allowing 42 percent downward slide in cotton prices in a month.
Talking to Business Recorder, Zafar said that the PKB had decided to hold protest meetings in the cotton growing areas on November 5, 2008 to press for their demands. "If the government failed to pay fair prices to the farmers for their produce, then from November 10, they would launch a countrywide protest.
He said that farmers can not store seed-cotton, without ginning, in the humid month of October, as it gets contaminated. "It is a conspiracy against the nation in general and the farming community in particular that growers are being deprived of their hard earned money through market manipulation and cash crunch", he added. A well know agronomist, Farooque Bajwa, expressed surprise over such a drastic slide down in phutti and lint prices in a month, especially when cotton production is much below the target and textile industry's annual requirements.
He said that phutti prices have come down from Rs 2000 to Rs 1300 per 40 kg and lint prices from Rs 4200 to Rs 2600 per maund between 25 September and October 25, 2008, He said that by manipulating cotton prices, market players were robbing Punjab farmers Rs 82 billion by reducing phutti prices with impunity. He said if the Federal and Punjab governments had any concern for the farming community or the agriculture sector, then it should instruct the TCP to buy at least 3 million cotton bales at September 2008 cotton rates.
He said the growers are selling cotton and rice to meet expenses of wheat sowing. "If the farmers have no money to purchase inputs in November, then they would not be in a position to sow wheat, which is the staple food of the country." He suggested that the government should immediately provide Rs 40 billion to Rs 50 billion to TCP for purchase of phutti that it had set aside for payment to fertiliser companies as subsidy on fertilisers.
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