MULTAN, Oct 3: The Ghareeb Kisan Tehrik, Punjab, has threatened to launch a protest drive against low phutti prices if the government does not take steps to end exploitation of growers.
Speaking at a press conference here on Wednesday, tehrik’s Punjab coordinator Ghulam Mustafa said phutti was being sold for Rs600 to Rs650 per 40kg against the fixed price of Rs780.
He said owing to a price depression in the market, growers had stopped spraying their crop to combat pest attack at this stage of flowering and fruition in order to avoid ‘cash losses’. He said the phutti’s cost of production was Rs863.50 per maund, and in the light of the prevailing prices, a farmer had to suffer a loss of Rs213.50 per maund. “Cotton growers of the Punjab will have to suffer a loss of Rs21.75 billion at the prevailing rate,” he said.
Ghulam Mustafa alleged that all the government policies were directed to safeguard the benefits of the ‘tax-evasion mafia’ of textile millers. He said the commerce ministry’s initiative to produce contamination-free cotton was to make matters worse for growers as instead of improving ginning practices, strict laws were being framed for the farmers. “We reject all the black laws enacted to add to the growers’ woes,” he said.
He also criticized the role of the Pakistan Central Cotton Committee, alleging that it worked only to exploit growers for the benefit of millers. He expressed skepticism over the PCCC estimates of cost and size of the production. According to official statistics, some 93 per cent of land-holders were small farmers but at all the forums of policy-making a handful of big landlords having political clouts had been given a representation.
He said researchers had evolved leaf curl virus-resistant varieties of cotton, but only at the cost of quality and per acre yield of silver fibre. He stressed the need for a two-prong agriculture policy meant to fashion a sustainable agriculture besides increasing income of the growers.
Mr Mustafa demanded that the minimum price of phutti should be fixed at Rs1,200 per 40kg. He announced that the GKT might bring growers on road by Oct 8 in protest against anti-farmer policies of the government’s ‘borrowed’ economic managers.
The tehrik urged the government to abolish GST on fertilizers, do away with the farm income tax, ensure supply of irrigation water, subsidized diesel and electricity for farm use, constitute boards of small farmers to decide prices of farm outputs and improve the working of the ADBP while lending to small farmers.