Seed-cotton in abundance Ginners issued warning

Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) has warned the ginners not to purchase seed-cotton in abundance from the farmers and run their business very carefully otherwise they would have to bear financial losses.
PCGA chairman Haji Hafeez Anwar while talking to media men here on Sunday, he said that textile millers, spinners were purchasing the cotton according to their need and they were not purchasing cotton to keep it in stock.
Hafeez Anwar said the government should protect the interest of all stakeholders from farmers to spinners and weavers. He alleged that farmers were being exploited by the monopolists and they are not getting fair return of their produce.
He was of the view that support price fixed by the government would help the farmers in ensuring fair return of their produce otherwise farmers would be shifted to alternate products instead of cotton. The PCGA chairman said that APTMA was the sole buyer of cotton in Pakistan and they had developed a cartel to purchase cotton on cheapest price demanded of the government to announce the support price of seed-cotton and introduce Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) as third buyer to stabilise the prices in the market and to save the farmers from financial losses, impose ban on the shifting of sugar mills to Southern Punjab which had been declared as cotton belt and take effective measures for the protection of white gold (cotton) economy and to promote the export of textile products. Anwar said the government should give incentives to the exporters of cotton so that cotton export would bring stability in prices and farmers could get fair return of their produce.
He said that Indian government has concentrated its attention towards the cotton production to strengthen its economy and it was giving incentives to cotton growers, ginners, and textile sector but our government had shut its eyes and it was reluctant to give any incentive to the stakeholders of cotton production. He warned that Pakistan would have to import raw-cotton and cotton yarn to run its textile mills if it did not protect the interest of farmers.
He said that shifting of sugar mills in the core cotton areas would be destructive for the cotton growers, ginners as well as textile sector. They said that shifting of sugar mills in Alipur and Jatoi sub-division of Muzaffargarh district would change the cropping pattern and expansion in existing sugar mills came at the cost of the silver fibre-a vital foreign exchange earner for the country. He said that the emerging situation would tempt more growers towards sugarcane, especially in Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur districts. They reiterated their demand that government should take notice of prevailing situation which may be harmful to textile sector.