Cotton support price: Cotton stakeholders complete consultations

MULTAN: Cotton stakeholders at the Ministry of National Food Security and Research have completed their consultations on the proposed support price for cotton crop and soon the summary would be forwarded to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC).

Pakistan Cotton Committee vice president and MNFSR consultant Dr Muhammad Ali Talpur said consultation process on the cotton support price had been completed and a summary on the support price would be presented at the ECC meeting soon. He said the country has achieved record production of sugarcane, rice and maize this year.

Similarly, the federal government is now focusing on increasing cotton production and a few days ago, Federal Minister for National Food Security Syed Fakhr Imam asked senior officials of the Ministry of National Food Security to fix the subsidy price of cotton. It was ordered to prepare a summary for which a summary has been prepared with the consultation process of all stakeholders.

The summary will be taken up in the next ECC meeting very soon. It will be submitted to the meeting for approval. Dr Muhammad Ali Talpur said cotton production is expected to improve and increase this year as compared to last year and so far there are positive indicators regarding cotton cultivation in all the four provinces and the country would have 10.5 million bales of cotton during current crop season.

He said they are trying their best to achieve the production target and in this regard the four provinces have already given Rs 10 billion in subsidy to the cotton farmers by the federal government. He said cotton growers should complete their registration as soon as possible under the subsidy procedure in their respective provinces so that cotton farmers were able to get the amount of support price accordingly, keeping in view the cost of production.