MULTAN, Sept 9: Federal commerce minister Razzaq Daud has made a clean breast that the government could not ensure premium to growers and ginners last year on the production of cotton free from contamination.
Talking to newsmen here on Monday, he agreed the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) and textile millers had not given the promised extra price.
Earlier, in the meeting on cotton production and marketing, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) member Kausar Abdullah Malik held the seed mafia responsible for the low per acre yield of cotton in the country.
Mr Daud said once the mechanism of producing and procuring cotton free from contamination had been evolved effectively, the issue of premium price would also be resolved automatically. “Producers of quality cotton will start getting better price as the cycle of producing cotton free from contamination comes in motion on permanent basis,” he said.
The federal commerce ministry had launched a drive to produce cotton free from contamination last year, initially from the districts of Rahim Yar Khan in Punjab and Ghotki in Sindh, in collaboration with the Agriculture departments of the two provinces.
A premium of Rs200 in addition to the grade price on cotton free from contamination and Rs75 on less-contaminated per maund of lint cotton had been announced as an incentive to ginners and growers.
The project was launched as a result of a study carried out by Gohar Ijaz of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association who claimed the country had suffered $1.4 billion loss per annum on account of the contaminated cotton.
Replying to newsmen, the commerce minister said he welcomed healthy criticism but adding that policies he was framing would prove beneficial for the farming community in the long run.
He was told that the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association chairman in a recent press conference had labelled him (the minister) as anti-grower and a sympathizer of powerful textile lobby in the country.
He said the phutti (seed cotton) support price of Rs800 per 40 kg was for the grade-III type and the price could vary in case of higher or lesser grade. He claimed the demand of domestic textile and spinning sector was 11.5 million to 12 million bales of cotton per annum against the country’s production of around 10.5 million bales.
Mr Daud hoped that growers would get better price this year keeping in the view the prevailing market prices which were well above the support price.
He said the Aug 31 meeting of the federal cabinet did not take up the Punjab demand of a ban on cotton import or duty on its import. “Any decision in this regard will be taken in the larger interest of the farming community,” he asserted.
Mr Daud was talking to newsmen along with Federal Agriculture Minister Khair Muhammad Junejo and Punjab Agriculture Minister Khursheed Zaman Qureshi after a meeting on cotton production and marketing.
Replying questions, Mr Junejo said the performance of existing commercial cotton varieties was discussed at large during the meeting in the light of demand of the domestic textile and spinning sector.
He said it was agreed that the scientists did evolve varieties resistant to cotton leaf curl virus (CLCV) but at the cost of per acre yield.
He said the phenomenon of the approval of too many varieties at a time also came under discussion and it was decided in principle that in future only one or two new varieties should be approved in a year. “Too many cotton varieties put growers in a fix,” he remarked.
Mr Junejo appreciated the Punjab Agriculture Department move to recommend only six cotton varieties for sowing next year. When his attention was drawn to the fact that four of the six recommended varieties had come under CLCV attack this year, he opined that they could be less susceptible to the virus attack.
He expressed his satisfaction over the current crop condition and hoped that cotton production would cross the figure of 10 million bales despite the nine per cent less acreage as compared to the last year’s. He saw better price this year in the light of global reports of low production against demand.
Quoting international agencies, he said there would be a shortfall of cotton production this year by 10.5 per cent viz-a-viz last year world production of 98.4 million bales while its demand had risen from 92.2 million bales to 94.2 million bales.
Khursheed Zaman Qureshi said the Burewala area of the Vehari district was the focal point of the CLCV attack this year. To a question, he admitted that the virus attack had not been limited to Burewala only.
He said the Punjab had yet to decide a ban on cotton sowing in area badly hit by CLCV. “This is just one of a number of options to contain the virus spread,” he said.
The idea of custom ginning, he said, was beneficial to cotton growers of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan. He said the Punjab agriculture department had done a lot of work on the subject and now the scheme was to be launched shortly.
Various commercial banks, he said, had been approached for the financial assistance of the scheme. “A decision in this regard will be taken in the next meeting of the provincial committee on custom ginning”, he added.
The resurgence of CLCV in the fields of Punjab dominated the meeting as representatives from the farming community raised questions about the previous research on producing CLCV-resistant cotton varieties.
They urged the government to conduct a thorough study on the method of evolving existing CLCV-resistant varieties before releasing funds for the new research.