The Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) has urged the prime minister to take notice of delay in announcement of support price for cotton crop and making non-elected people accountable for chaos in this sector.
Cotton prices for the last two weeks are depressing day-by-day and touch as low as 2500 per maund of Phutti in the Sindh whereas in the Punjab and the Sindh it hovers around 2800 to 3200 per maund which is far below than the cost of cultivation. Resultantly, cotton growers are not making any money out of cotton production hence they withdrew their interest in pesticide application and fertilizer.
This is the reason the cotton crop is severely damaging by white fly, thrips and pink boll worm and turning into black due to subsequent development of sooty mold on affected leaves.
The Pakistan Kissan Ittehad is continuously demanding of the government to announce support price to save the cotton growers from losses and ultimately the industry.
The Parliament had also passed a resolution and the special committee on agriculture headed by the speaker NA made recommendations to announce support price or intervention price and impose duty on import of raw cotton in May 2019, said PKI President Khalid Khokhar in a statement issued on Monday.
Unfortunately, all recommendations of the highest forum and demands of the Pakistan Kissan Ittehad were thrown into waste bin and stubborn attitude of an adviser intelligently delayed the decision of import duty (the notification is still not issued yet) and put the issue of support price on back burner.
The cotton growers have a number of options to grow other crops in the next year and the government should take immediate notice of the situation, Khalid concluded.
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