MULTAN, March 31: Punjab Agriculture Minister Khursheed Zaman Qureshi has hinted at to advance loans to growers for cooperative ginning.

Speaking at a workshop organized at the Central Cotton Research Institute here on Saturday, he said the government was considering a scheme to evolve a mechanism to facilitate growers to get ginned their produce from organized ginning factories.

The minister said the Agriculture Department would be given the task to monitor the cooperative ginning meant to increase disposable income of the farming community.

He said the problems of growers could not be resolved unless they sowed disease-free and premium quality cotton. He said the days of ‘subsidies’ had gone, and the growers had to stand at their own to face the realities of the market economy. He claimed the economies were likely to be ruined after the implementation of WTO agreements which still were relying on subsidies.

Pakistani cotton was the best in the world but it needed a proper marketing mechanism to overcome difficulties, he said.

The minister said cotton emerged as the only choice for Kharif crops owing to its less demand of water in the backdrop of scarce water resources. He said there was no bar on exporting raw cotton but the growers and ginners would have to do its grading according to international standards.

He said the government was making it definite that the Trading Corporation of Pakistan should complete its procurement target of one million bales before the next crop.

TCP representative Ghazanfar, claiming that the corporation had played its role in price stabilization in the cotton market, assured that all the stocks of specified cotton would be bought from ginners.

Participants in the workshop urged the government to promulgate the cotton standardization act which had been pending for the last 10 to 12 years. They also demanded a ban on the import of such types of cotton which were being produced in the country.