MULTAN City News

CM should come forward to save cotton industry: PCGA chief

Demands govt constitute a commission to investigate cause of decline in cotton production

From Our Correspondent

MULTAN: Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association chairman Nawab Shahzad Ali Khan has demanded the government constitute a commission headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court to investigate cause of decline in cotton production.

Addressing the PCGA executive committee meeting here on Tuesday, he said that it was a matter of concern that the national cotton policy could not be framed so far. He said that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif should come forward to save the Rs 1,500 billion cotton industry, fix production target at 20 million bales for the next season and ensure provision of well-germinated and internationally-certified seeds to the farmers to achieve the target. He said that the farmers had suffered a loss of Rs 50 billion during this season and they were forced to sell their cattle heads to meet their daily expenses. He apprehended that the textile mills and powerlooms would come to a standstill if the government did not take steps to solve problems of the cotton growers. He said that the situation was forcing the cotton grower to shift to other crops. He urged the government to approve the Cotton Seed Act and the Breeders Proprietary Rights Act without any delay to protect the interests of the growers, who had suffered a huge loss at the hands of unscrupulous elements and seed mafia. He held the textile ministry responsible for all ills, saying that it had failed to redress grievances of all stakeholders of cotton. He said that the Pakistan Cotton Standards Institute had lost its credibility as no international/local buyers or associations were ready to accept its tests. The PCGA chairman said that there were more than 700 registered seed companies but they had no agriculture scientist or expert. He said that this year’s crop might yield only 9.5 million bales (170 kilogram each), which was short of the earlier revised estimate of 13.5 million bales. Haji Muhammad Akram, Haji Hafeez Anwar, Mukhtar Ahmad Baloch, Amanullah Qureshi, Mahesh Kumar, Sheikh Muhammad Saeed and others attended the meeting.