The government has not included cotton in Rs 309 billion Prime Minister's National Agriculture Emergency Programme which has a share of 0.8 percent in gross domestic product (GDP) and contributes 4.5 percent in agriculture value addition.
President Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) Khalid Khokhar while speaking at Aaj TV programme 'Paisa Bolta Hai' with Anjum Ibrahim said that the agriculture programme announced by the government has only covered four crops including sugarcane, wheat, rice and oilseed but unfortunately does not include cotton crop, one of the most important cash crops in the country. "This programme could be a person specific but it would not benefit the country", he said.
Dr Muhammad Hashim Popalzai secretary Ministry of National Food Secretary and Research (MNFS&R) while talking to Business Recorder said that the government is working on an exclusive programme for betterment of cotton crop and almost 50 percent of the work has been completed. "The programme for cotton would be announced before coming of the next crop", he said.
He said that government is also working to announce indicative price for cotton as well as planning to impose duty on import of cotton. Khokhar further said that 60 percent of country's exports depend on cotton. Other countries have provided level playing field to cotton growers while the government of Pakistan has taken steps to harm the growers by allowing duty-free import of cotton from countries providing heavy subsidies to cotton producers, he said.
He said that India has massively increased cotton production. In contrast, cotton yield in Pakistan is declining every year as a result country's import bill of cotton and edible oil extracted from cotton seed is running into billions of dollars.
If government takes concrete steps for enhancement of productivity of cotton then Pakistan will not import edible oil extracted from cotton seed, he said.
Khokhar said that parliament on the 1st of May passed a resolution calling for imposition of regulatory duty on the import of cotton and fixing of support price but the government allowed import of duty free cotton. The government in spite of parliament's resolution allowed import of duty free cotton which will have a negative effect on the next crop, he said.
According to the five-year Rs 309 billion Prime Minister's National Agriculture Emergency Programme, the federal government would contribute Rs 85 billion while provincial governments would contribute Rs 175 billion and share of farmers would be Rs 50 billion.
Under the programme the first project relates to boosting wheat productivity with an outlay of Rs 19.3 billion including federal contribution of Rs 2.47 billion. Another project relates to enhancement of rice crop productivity with an outlay of Rs 11.4 billion with the federal government contributing Rs 1.4billion.
The sugarcane project will cost Rs 3.9 billion with the federal government contributing Rs 0.7 billion. The national oilseeds enhancement programme will cost Rs 10.2 billion with federal government's contribution of Rs Rs 4.2 billion.
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