"We would not be able to run our ginning factories in next season of 2017-18 due to burden of taxes and other crises," said Chairman of Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA), Dr Jeso Mal while submitting budget proposals/recommendations to Standing Committee of National Assembly for Finance and Revenue in Islamabad. He said that Textile Industry was only buyer of cotton and there is no other buyer in the country to break the monopoly of APTMA.
In his budget proposals, PCGA chairman demanded a bailout cum incentive oriented package for the ginners. Since cotton is an important cash crop and lifeline of textile industry millions of farmers are directly associated with cultivation and harvesting of cotton crop and sale of lint. The government should announce a National Cotton Policy with the consent of farmers, ginners and other stakeholders before the sowing of cotton crop and a comprehensive bailout and incentive oriented package must be announced forthwith.
There should be complete ban on sugarcane sowing in core-cotton zone. There should be no permission for setting up of sugar Industry in cotton zone. Dr Jeso Mal told the standing committee of NA that there was a possibility of 20 million bales production if the proposals and recommendations of PCGA are implemented.
Chairman PCGA said that government should take notice of continuous low production of cotton in the country and responsible departments, researchers, and institutions must be made accountable for not performing their duties properly. To meet that demand, the country needs to boost its cotton production. He said that the desired targets of cotton production remained a distant dream for the last three years as it was largely below target. Pakistan is the world's fourth largest cotton producer and a leading exporter of yarn. Therefore, all-out efforts are required in many areas to improve cotton production to meet not only the export demand but also domestic requirements.
PCGA chairman briefed the committee that presently cotton crop is facing a number of constraints, including low per acre yield that ranks Pakistan 10th in the world, high price of agriculture inputs (seeds, fertilisers, pesticides etc), higher intensity of insects and pests attack, shortage of good quality, high-yielding insect and pests resistant varieties of seeds, deficiency of irrigation water; lack of advance technologies, lack of awareness and agro-professionalism and adulterations in pesticides, fertilisers and seeds.
The government is well aware of the overwhelming significance of cotton as lifeline of economy. It is looking for different options to visualise Cotton Vision 2020 of 20.70 million bales production. This is only possible making constant efforts in the field of research and for increasing the lint yield per acre by adopting modern production techniques.