MULTAN, Sept 19th: Government should frame five year cotton policy without any further delay to enhance cotton production to 22 million bales and exports to 3 million bales in a proposed cotton policy by giving incentives of crop insurance and quality premium for farmers. At present, average cotton production stands at 13 million bales and exports at 1 million bales,said Dr.Jeso Mal T. Leemani Chairman of Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) while addressing a press conference alongwith Haji Muhammad Akram, Shehzad Ali Khan, Suhail Mehmood Haral,Mian Javed Tariq and Ashiq Ali Babar Rehmani. He said that cotton policy should be finalised with the consent of all stake holders and ginners would not let anyone to make a policy at the cost of farmers' interest. Dr.Jeso Mal said that Government and private enterprises failed to supply qualitative, well germinated ,heat resistant and virus resistant seed to farmers .To enhance production, the area sown with cotton crop must be increased to 4.2 million hectares, up 1 million hectares from the current around 3.2 million hectares, he said. The country will have to strive to achieve a better yarn recovery rate of 90% compared to the existing 85%. Though Pakistan is the fourth largest producer of cotton after China, United States and India,yet it ranks 2nd in terms of contamination in cotton.“Pakistan’s cotton fetches a low price upto 15 cent/lb because of contamination and this issue must be addressed in new cotton policy,” farmers producing clean cotton should be offered a premium as an encouragement. A cotton investment fund should also be raised for such schemes and programmes.In the past too, the government offered a premium of Rs50 per maund, which bore fruit as cotton quality improved substantially and Pakistan stood way below at 25th position.Under the five-year programme, he said, the government should be pressed to set aside funds for research and development, capacity-building and infrastructure development.“Cotton exports may go up to 3 million bales on the back of better regulation of the market and encouraging incentives, which must be unveiled in the proposed cotton policy,”.In an attempt to minimise the role of middlemen and ensure direct contact between farmers and buyers, the government, in the first phase, should set up a model cotton trading house, which should work as a hub for sale of cotton. Cotton ginning research and training institute should also be established in Sindh & Punjab . “These institutes should set up a ginning factory for the farmers, where they will be able to process their produce. All countries, except India, have this system in place,” Dr.Jeso Mal said. He said, the federal government should take all provinces and other stakeholders on board. Seminars should also be organised on the proposed policy to create awareness and seek suggestions. PCGA Chairman said that the key crop failure should be taken seriously also because it did not occur in any of the cotton-growing countries except Pakistan.The cotton crop failure has far-reaching impact in the country where 60 per cent population lives in rural areas.A short crop resulted in job losses to rural workforce, particularly women cotton pickers.Pakistan’s cotton production stood at 15 million bales in the 2013-14, which dropped to around 12 to 13m bales during the last two seasons. It translated into a shortfall of 10m bales in the last two years which, according to experts, cost the country around Rs,500 billion. Moreover, the country also had to foot a huge import bill to meet the demand.Dr Jassu Mal T. Leemani, chairman of Pakistan Cotton Ginners’ Association (PCGA)said the biggest problem facing the cotton crop was the absence of support price for cotton.“The government was giving support price and subsidy to other crops such as sugar cane and wheat, but not cotton. It encouraged growers to shift to those crops which ensure fixed and secured income”, he said.The sugar cane support price fixed by the government is Rs182 a maund (around 37 kilograms); besides, the government gives subsidy on the export of sugar. He said in a light vein that Government was promoting the disbetes in the country by encouraging the sugar industry even in cotton core areas,Mr Leemani said that around 30pc cotton area in Punjab has gone under sugar cane or maize cultivation. At the time of independence, around six million acres of land used to come under cotton cultivation, which has now shrunk to 4.5m acres.He also admitted that poor ginning was also causing huge loss to the country as the 1952 technology of saw-gin was damaging cotton quality and the length of its fibre.The new cotton policy should also come up with incentives for ginners so that they could be encouraged to shift to modern ginning technology.The electricity to the ginning industry should also be given on minimum rates as was being offered to the textile industry, he added.
