The Punjab Cotton Consultative Group (CCG) took stock of the 2008-09 cotton production here on Friday and demanded that Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) should immediately start procurement of at least two million bales to stabilise phutti and lint prices.
The meeting was attended by Secretary Agriculture Punjab, representatives of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association, Cotton Ginners Association, WWF and farmers/growers organisations. Representatives of farmers told Business Recorder that they had demanded of the TCP to fix minimum phutti price at Rs 1600 per maund and lint price at Rs 3300 per 37.324 KG (maund) to ensure fair prices to the farmers.
Director Agriculture Produce-Protection Organisation (APO) Farooque Bajwa said that 3.3 million cotton bales have already arrived in the ginning factories of Punjab, and 2.5 million more bales are expected this month, therefore the TCP should start its operation forthwith.
He said the farmers had grown early yield BT cotton variety this season so that cotton fields may be left free for sowing wheat crop as soon as possible. "The 24 percent increase in cotton arrival as compared to corresponding period of last year is not due to better cotton crop but early yielding varieties, Bajwa added.
He said that crop in Vehari, Khanewal, Multan and Lodhran districts had been affected by cotton leaf curl virus (CLCV) thus the cotton production in Punjab would not be more 8.3 million bales as against the estimates of 10 to 11 million bales.
President Pakistan Agri Forum Ibrahim Mughal, another participant of the meeting told that CCG suggested since cotton is mostly grown in the Barani (rain dependent) areas in India, therefore the government should encourage the farmers of Barani areas to grow cotton in order to provide more raw material to the textile industry which fetches 67 percent foreign exchange of the country.
He said the farmers/growers bodies also demanded that the Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Supply Corporation (Passco) should also start purchase of paddy in the province. "Unless Passco comes in the market in a big way, the paddy prices would not stabilise", they apprehended.
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