HYDERABAD: The Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) has expressed its concern over the declining prices of cotton, ‘debacle in mangoes’ and rising cost of agricultural inputs.

The issues were discussed at SAB’s meeting held here on Monday under the chairmanship of Mahmood Nawaz Shah. Dr Zulfiqar Yousfani, Syed Nadeem Shah, Malook Nizamani, Aslam Marri, Imran Bozdar and other leaders attended the meeting.

It noted that the cotton price was declining while harvesting at local level had been started. It said that cotton seed rate had declined from Rs1,500 per 40kg to below Rs7,900 now over the last one month or so.

This has happened when cotton picking has not even reached its peak. It is feared that with the increase in the arrival of the crop, the price may decline further.

The meeting also pointed out that the mango season of 2026 perhaps appeared to be one of the worst seasons in a decade and a half. Mangoes were first affected by severe attacks of hopper, thrips and malformation. Due to these unprecedented attacks, farmers carried out sprays for more than five times, instead of usual once or twice, in certain areas —

still without substantial results. The production remained much below the desired level. Resultantly, cost of production increased and when harvesting started, rates of mangoes suppressed to fewer than the last year’s. All this has led to heavy losses to mango producers. “In some areas, farmers are already inclined to cutting down the trees,” the meeting noted.

It was of view that production needed to be backed by research and development to guide farmers to face challenges in production. Old production methods needed to change; old layouts of a few large unmanageable trees also needed to changed. This change is not easy and could only be brought about through formal research in field and by showing it to farmers successful models for them to replicate.

According to SAB, there are the farmers who have already taken initiatives and have been investing heavily in different layouts. What is required is that these initiatives are supported through research, development and expertise, so that successful pilots are documented and demonstrated for further replication by farmers.

This intervention is necessary because it is not only a different layout; it comes with so many things, like the way of pruning, its timing, management of nutrition, ideal tree size, etc. It requires a proper approach and may take many years, therefore, farmers doing it themselves are not very successful and it is critical that government involve these farmers in research programme to bring about a paradigm shift.

SAB urged government to take cognizance of rising input costs. Prices of fertilisers and other inputs have been rising over the past three years and on the pretext of war, prices increased further; e.g. the price of Di-Ammonium Phosphate (the second-largest used fertiliser) rose to Rs12,000 a bag until before the war and increased to Rs15,000 a bag over the last six months.

The board demanded that the prices of inputs should be rationalised and reduced to match the cost of production for new crops.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2026