LAHORE: Cotton growers say the intervention price for the crop announced recently by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) is too late.

The ECC decided that in order to incentivise cotton production the government would purchase at least 200,000 bales of the crop from the local market at 90 per cent of the international rate plus freight charges this season.

Pakistan Kisan Ittehad general secretary Mian Umair said here on Tuesday that the decision was too late as it should have been taken at the time of sowing of the crop. The cotton sowing season ends on May 31.

He argued that the cotton growers had already shifted to rice, maize and sugarcane crops by the time the ECC took the decision, which too was pending cabinet approval.

The growers have been demanding an intervention price of at least Rs5,500 per 40kg this year keeping in view the increase in farm inputs, like DAP fertilizer price has almost doubled, going up from Rs3,500 to Rs6,000, diesel prices have also shot up by around 30 per cent.

The government has set the production target for the 2021-22 crop at 10.5 million bales, 50pc more than that of the last season. It has also set the target of cultivating cotton over 2.33m hectares, up 16pc compared to last year’s 2.01m hectares.

Over the last few years almost half of the ginning units have closed down because of declining cotton production.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2021