MULTAN, Aug 23: The Kissan Board Pakistan has demanded that the government should direct the Trading Corporation of Pakistan to make arrangements for the procurement of two million bales of cotton from the current crop 2004-05.

Addressing a gathering of farmers here on Monday, KBP's Punjab president Khursheed Kanju said this year the country was likely to have a bumper crop but the declining trend in the cotton prices in international market had given sleepless nights to the growers.

He said the ginners had yet to dispose of their stocks from the last year's crop and the phenomenon was bound to create troubles with the arrival of phutti (seed cotton) from the fresh crop (as the ginners have vowed not to procure the fresh crop till the disposal of their stocks from the previous crop).

The KBP's provincial president said the TCP should immediately start exploring the avenues for the export of cotton this year to avoid glut of the commodity at the time when it would be with the growers. He demanded that the minimum rate of phutti be fixed at Rs1,200 per 40 kilograms rather than Rs925.