HYDERABAD: Sindh government has not yet issued notification of indicative price of cotton crop, much to the chagrin of farming circles.

Resultantly, growers are fetching price lower than expected in lower Sindh region where farmers are about to start harvest of rice crop.

Sindh government has to announce/fix indicative price for paddy and phutti as per provincial agriculture department’s commitment. It agreed in principle to fix Rs3,200 price for phutti and Rs1,000 for paddy per 40kg.

To date, the summary has not been signed by Sindh’s chief minister. “Summary is not yet signed by the chief minister otherwise it will have been notified,” said an agriculture official. He agreed with farmers’ view that rate of cotton was falling, without any signs of government’s immediate intervention.

On the other hand, cotton producers and ginners fear drop in prices as ginning gains momentum.

Picking started in Sindh over a month back amid complaints of deductions on crop’s weight to hit growers economically. Growers, initially, got impressive price of Rs3,500 per 40kg, but now they are getting around Rs2,400-2,600.

There are nearly 250 ginning units in Sindh, of which 125 to 150 have started production. The rest would start functioning soon that would accelerate pace of buying in the days to come only to affect price further at the farmers’ end.

Mahesh Kumar, former Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) central chairman, said rise in cotton price initially was due to increased demand of oilcake, extracted from seed cotton (phutti).

“Oilcake is selling at Rs1,600 to Rs1,700 per 37.3234kg compared to Rs800 per maund last year. Seed cotton produces 85 per cent of oilcake which is used as animal feed,” he said.

Prem Chand Kiyatani, senior vice-chairman of the PCGA, predicts further drop in prices. “Rate of seed cotton dropped to Rs1,250 per maund from Rs1,700 and cotton price will fall by Rs200 to Rs300 per maund again when remaining ginning factories start production that will reduce price to Rs2,300 to Rs2,400,” he said.

He said if government did not take measures to stabilise market, producers may give up cultivating cotton as they cannot afford losses.

Published in Dawn, August 16th , 2014