MULTAN City News

Call for educating farmers about growing more cotton

From Our Correspondent

MULTAN: Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) chairman Shahzad Ali Khan Tuesday urged the association representatives to educate farmers about growing more cotton in a proper manner.

Talking to journalists and referring the PCGA delegation meeting with Federal Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan, the PCGA chairman said the minister had expressed his concern on the decline of 5,100,000 bales of cotton during the current season causing Rs 200 billion loss, and said Pakistan could not afford huge losses and they could not import cotton due to limited resources.

Shahzad said the minister largely appreciated the interest of ginners in cotton production and termed cotton as a backbone of the economy. He said the minister suggested the Ministry and the PCGA should work like a team to motivate growers for cultivation of cotton on maximum area and the Commerce Ministry would work in collaboration with the provincial governments to enhance the production of cotton.

The PCGA chairman said the minister said the prime concern of the government was to ensure interests of farmers besides boosting textile exports. He urged the PCGA representatives to launch a campaign for farmers’ education about growing more cotton in a proper fashion.

It was decided that a meeting of all the stakeholders would be convened to prepare a holistic strategy to address the issues of cotton production, quality of cotton and its import mechanism. The PCGA chairman suggested support price of “Phutti” be fixed at Rs 3,000 per 40 kg and it must be announced immediately to attract growers. He urged the government to announce a bailout package for the ginning industry, saying that conspiracies were underway to harm Pakistani agriculture.

He urged the government to launch a vigorous drive with motto “Sow the cotton; Save the Economy” and take urgent steps to achieve 20 million bales target. He asked the Chief Ministers of Sindh and Punjab to take personal interest to achieve targets.