Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) boycotted the meeting of Cotton Crop Management Group (CCMG) held at Central Cotton Research Institute (CCRI) on Thursday and alleged that bureaucracy was misguiding the Government by giving fabricated and concocted figures of cotton sowing in Punjab.
Later addressing a joint press conference PCGA Chairman Shehzad Ali Khan, Vice Chairman Sarfraz Nazim Awan, Ex-Chairmen Haji Muhammad Akram and Suhail Mehmood Haral said that Federal and Provincial Government failed to convince the farmers to bring maximum area under cotton crop and cotton was sown on 50 percent less areas during this season while bureaucracy was insisting on merely 14 percent less area.
Though Central and provincial government have reduced the prices of fertilisers and Zero percent sales tax on pesticides yet these announcements require immediate implementation. No notification was issued regarding concessional power tariff for agricultural sector.
They claimed that cotton production would be less than preceding year and official targets of cotton production would prove exaggerated. Shehzad Ali Khan said that Punjab Agriculture Minister was trying their utmost to draw the attention of federal Government towards the fixation of support price of "Phutti" and procurement of at least 2 million bales through Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) for the last two months but no one was ready to listen him because bureaucracy was playing in the hands of Indian exporters and it was plotting to destroy the Pakistani cotton to make it a cotton dependent country.
Shehzad Ali Khan warned that mere lip service can't serve the purpose and farmer was no ready to trust on the hollow slogans of the Government. He suggested that Government should act upon the advice of Ministry of National Food Security and Research and immediately announce the National Cotton policy with the consent of all stake holders otherwise Government should preserve foreign exchange of Rs 500 billion to import cotton from different countries.
Explaining the causes of decline in cotton production, Shehzad Ali Khan said that Cotton core zone was being turned in Sugarcane area, substandard, uncertified, less germinated seed is available in the market, concerned research institutes failed to evolve new varieties of cotton.