‘Fertiliser subsidy for farmers not ginners’

LAHORE: Experts have advised the government to ensure that the support it provides to the farmers goes directly in their kitty and is not pocketed by the influential people with vested interests.
They pointed out that mostly the subsidy provided on fertiliser goes in to the accounts of the fertiliser dealers. Similarly, the support that the government provides to the farmers by procuring cotton at higher than market rates goes in to the pocket of the ginners.
All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) Chairman SM Tanveer said the cotton rates have sharply declined in the global market. Farmers, he added would need government support to dispose of their produce. This, he added is a routine the world over, where governments support their cotton farmers.
He said the government of Pakistan also periodically facilitates the farmers by procuring one or two million bales at its announced support price. Cotton is procured from the ginners. The irony, he added is that the ginners’, gin the cotton after procuring cotton at the prevailing low market rates.
He accused the ginners of pocketing the payment received from the government to earn a hefty amount. Hence, the farmers get nothing out of the subsidy provided by the government. Moreover, the subsidy is provided on one or two million bales, while the farmers produce 14-15 million bales annually. He said industry buys the cotton at prevailing global rates. This can be judged by the fact that last year the Trading Corporation of Pakistan procured one million bales. Now, they have issued tenders for disposal of that stock which they bought at Rs60,000 per maund. The industry has not offered any price, because the global cotton rate is Rs45,000. Thus, the Rs10 billion that the TCP paid last year to protect farmers, have gone to ginners, leaving farmers with nothing, he explained.
Group leader Aptma, Gohar Ejaz said the farmers need a mechanism under which the subsidy is evenly distributed among them. He said it has been learnt that the government is again planning to intervene in the cotton market by procuring another one million bales from the fresh crop with the same mechanism.
Ejaz advised to instead distribute Rs10 billion this year among the cotton farmers evenly on the basis of acres on which they cultivated cotton. He said data in this regard could be retrieved from the cotton advisory committee or the provincial extension departments. He said money should be distributed transparently and directly in the accounts of the farmers. He said this measure would increase the financial inclusion of farmers.
He said the subsidy should not be given to the ginners that charge fair ginning charges from the industry while procuring cotton at market rates. He said spinners consider farmers their partners in trade. He said if they were not properly compensated for their produce, they would stop cultivating cotton. He said ginners are also important stakeholders in the cotton chain and get their due ginning share on each cotton bale they gin.
He said Rs10 billion subsidies the government provides on ginned cotton were not even distributed among all the ginners. He said the influential get the lion’s share, while many remain deprived creating a bad feeling among them. He said subsidy is the right of farmers only and it should be distributed to them only. He said farmers’ exploitation would have dire consequences on the economy.