RAHIM YAR KHAN: The government should devise a comprehensive agriculture policy to provide relief to raw cotton growers because cotton production was very low this year, said Haji Ibrahim, the former chairman of Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association and patron-in-chief of Pakistan Ginners Group.

Talking to Dawn here on Sunday, Mr Ibrahim said there was a need for a comprehensive raw cotton policy to boost its production next year. He stressed that the locally produced cotton seed of different varieties had now became less germinated and the government should import the best quality cotton seed that is resistant to changing weather conditions to get maximum yield.

He further said that according to data, five million raw cotton bales reached ginning factories this year as compared to 7.8 million on Dec 15, 2019.

Similarly, around three million bales reached the ginning factories of Punjab as compared to last year’s 4.4 million. In Sindh, two million bales reached ginners till Dec 15, while last year they were 3.4 million.

Mr Ibrahim further said that 4.7 million pure cotton bales were produced from raw cotton till Dec 15 in 384 ginning factories across the country; there were 2,275 factories in Punjab where 2.7 million pure bales were produced.

Similarly in Sindh, 789,423 raw cotton bales reached the ginning factories of Sanghar, 29,695 in Mirpur Khas, 60,281 in Nawabshah, 190,132 in Noshehro Feroze, 205,169 in Khairpur, 338,397 in Sukkur, 40,800 in Jamshoro and 105,362 in Hyderabad.

He also said that exporters had purchased 62,500 cotton bales, while the textile sector purchased 4.1 million bales this season. The Trading Corporation of Pakistan, however, did not buy this season. He added that there were 826,267 cotton bales unsold in the ginning factories of the country.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2020