LAHORE, Sept 13: The government must devise a strategy to control mealy bug as it has emerged a major threat to the cotton crop and also promote BT cotton, which has proven to be beneficial to stakeholders.

The Farmers Associates Pakistan (FAP) demanded this at a meeting on Thursday.

The house praised federal and provincial governments for subsidising electricity by 25 per cent. It demanded that the government also subsidise charges for tube-well power connections.

The government should allow free import of cotton inputs from India through Wahga in addition to import of cotton from India to provide a level-playing field to Pakistani cotton growers, the FAP asked.

At the same time, import of sugar should be stopped forthwith to encourage local farmers and industry to avail the upcoming crushing season without any problem. Sugar factories should be asked to start crushing season from Oct 25 to enable farmers sow wheat after harvest of sugarcane.

The government should fix the sugarcane price at Rs80 per 40kg and also finalise time of payment to growers. A cane procurement receipt (CPR) should be declared a negotiable instrument to facilitate farmers to get it discounted. Moreover a column of due date of payment be also added on CPRs.