HYDERABAD: The Sindh Chamber of Agricu­lture (SCA) has accused ginners of artificially lowering cotton crop prices by Rs7,000 per 40kg, causing producers to lose Rs4 billion this season.

The SCA, which met on Saturday under the chairmanship of its president Miran Mohammad Shah stro­­ngly reacted against lower cotton prices being offered to growers. The chamber said a price of Rs4,000 per 40kg was being paid to them, which was Rs11,000 per 40kg until recently.

The chamber said farmers were facing worse economic conditions and urged that Rs10,000 per 40kg cotton price should be offered to growers and action should be taken against ginners.

The meeting urged Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to take action against this exploitation of growers. The meeting noted that prices of commodities, including cotton, were dropping while farm input prices had increased substantially. The SCA said that cotton factory owners have established a cartel only to deny the just price of cotton to them.

The meeting noted that, so far, cotton producers had incurred a loss of Rs4bn due to this artificial decline in price. The SCA vowed not to tolerate such heinous exploitation. It urged PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari to intervene and save farmers from losses, adding that prices of cotton in the international market remained stable.

The chamber added that it is regrettable that Sindh’s chief secretary, divisional commissioners, and deputy commissioners remained silent over this exploitation.

Growers briefed the SCA that a substantial rise was witnessed in prices of paddy crop seed and pesticides, which showed that farmers’ commodities were bought for lower prices while input costs had been increased.The meeting was atten­ded by Zahid Bhurgari, Nabi Bux Sathio, Nisar Memon, and others.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2022