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| Farmers’ body opposes ban on cotton export | | October 31, 2009 (Pakistan) |  |
 The proposal to ban export of cotton has been opposed by the Farmers Associates of Pakistan (FAP) and Cotton Growers Association at a meeting arranged to discuss the issues of cotton growers.
In the meeting, FAP members stated that the textile mill owners should realize that cotton growers who provide them raw materials are not their competitors. The mill owners will suffer ultimately, if the interests of cotton growers would not be considered.
The FAP has made the proposals for government’s consideration to boost cotton production and textile exports of the country. It lamented that the government had failed to announce the support price of cotton, which should be announced at Rs 2,000 per 40-kg price considering the international prices.
This demand of fixing the price at Rs 2,000 per maund is justified as at present, the New York FOB prices are between 62-63 cents per pound and Liverpool cotton rates are around 57 cents per pound, said the FAP.
The association members expressed concern over the damages to the cotton crop which occurred due to virus attacks and which would definitely affect the cotton production target. There is an extensive drop in the cotton yield to as low as 10 maunds per acre.
As per the FAP, utilization of unauthentic seeds is the major reason behind the shortfall. Apart from this, early cotton sowing and new sowing areas for cotton cultivation are other factors that may have affected nearly 82 percent of the cotton acreage.
It said that the cotton crop in Punjab would decline by 25-30 percent less and it would not be possible to reach even the revised cotton production target of 13 million bales as production may reach only 12 million bales only.
The government should significantly take immediate remedial measures for the next cotton crop as the damages happened to the current cotton crop is beyond repair and the current situation reveals the possibility of serious seed crisis for the next crop.
Therefore, the FAP has recommended that indigenous varieties of seed should be approved immediately; fast track efforts should be made to guide and inform the farmers in this direction as well as the cultivation of approved varieties should be encouraged along with the introduction of new varieties of seeds, besides which, the government should take the initiative to gather and sponsor seed suppliers to attain key objectives.
Also considering Pakistan’s requirement of certified BT cotton, seeds should be made available immediately, added the FAP.
| | | | Fibre2fashion News Desk - India | |
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