Growers, ginners dispute Punjab’s cotton estimates

LAHORE: Growers and ginners on Tuesday disputed higher cotton output estimates of Punjab Crop Reporting Services, terming it a ploy to inflict heavy losses to growers, The News has learnt.

Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) and Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) termed Punjab’s cotton production estimate of 5.168 million bales highly unrealistic keeping in view the fresh cotton arrival trend.

Khalid Khokhar, President PKI and Suhail Mahmood Haral, Chairman PCGA, while speaking at the meeting of Cotton Crop Assessment Committee (CCAC) vehemently contradicted the claim of Crop Reporting Services, Punjab Agriculture Department, alleging that representative of provincial government were adamant to pitch cotton estimates at higher side without any substance.

“It is totally wrong to say that Punjab province would produce anything close to five million bales,” Khokhar said. In fact, the sector officials insisted, Punjab cotton output would not exceed 4.1-4.2 million bales.

“About 10 percent more cotton arrival is expected and thus whole volume could not be more than 7.6 to 7.7 million bales at national level against CCAC’s assessment of 9.1 million bales,” they stressed.

No one in the meeting challenged our estimation of lower cotton output, they claimed.

“Therefore, due to such a high variation in assessment and actual arrivals, we asked the CCAC chair not to release fudged assessment of cotton production,” the officials said.

Despite opposition of key stakeholders of cotton sector, the Cotton Crop Assessment Committee (CCAC) issued estimates of total production of cotton during the crop season 2021-22, assessing it at 9.1 million bales in the country.

The committee which met under the Chairmanship of Technical Advisor Dr Akmal Sidiq, Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MNFSR) for third time, estimated 5.168 million bales in Punjab, 3.5 million bales in Sindh, 0.43 million in Balochistan, and 0.004 million bales in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The Chairman welcomed the participants in the meeting and appreciated the stakeholders' interest and participation in the process of cotton crop assessment.

Dr Khalid Abdullah, Cotton Commissioner, presented the overview of cotton production scenario in the country.

Dr Abdul Qayum, DG Crop Reporting Service, Punjab revised the production estimate to 5.168 million bales from its earlier assessment of 5.44 million bales.

However, Sindh retained its earlier assessment of 3.5 million bales.

Grower members and representatives of PCGA were of the view that the production of Punjab province would be lower than what provincial government has assessed.

It is interesting to note that this year, Cotton Crop Assessment Committee had revised production target for the fourth time. And the latest cotton crop estimate of 9.1 million bales was highly likely to be missed by a big margin or about 1.5 million bales.

The first cotton assessment was around 10.05 million bales, which was revised to 8.460 million, again in October and later it was against revised to 9.374 million bales. Now, the committee expects cotton harvest of 9.1 million bales.

According to insiders, the government has kept cotton estimate at higher side to give benefit to the powerful industry with a view to depressing cotton price and thus inflicting heavy losses to farmers.

Meanwhile, Ehsanull Haq, a cotton ginner from Rahim Yar Khan also estimated cotton output at around 7.5 to 7.8 million bales. Haq added that for meeting the shortfall in domestic cotton production, textile mills during this fiscal year would have to import around seven million bales of cotton to ensure timely delivery of export orders.