The loss that the country is facing due to the scarce production of cotton has been the talk of the textile town for quite some time now and still the government has taken no action to make the situation any better. Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) is now demanding that emergency measures be taken by the government to boost cotton yield so that the country can start to recover from the loses of billions and secure the livelihoods.
“The country was facing a direct loss of $2 billion annually and $8 billion indirectly due to the drop in cotton production”, says Dr Jassu Mal, PCGA Chairman.
Going from 15 million bales to 5.5 million bales, this is the lowest production rate in three decades. Moreover, 700$ million worth of Cotton seed, animal feed (khal) of $1.5 and cotton and wood used as fuel is an addition loss. This highlights how ignorant the government is being by not taking quick action to fix this crisis which has been affecting growers, ginners, spinning and viewing industry, as well as the country’s textile export industry said Dr Jassu Mal.
Unemployment of thousands of cotton pickers, majority of whom consist of women, is also a direct result of this cotton catastrophe that has hit the country. 60 percent of ginning factories out of a total 1,200 were closed.
Textile sector was provided the right incentives, reduced power rates and duty fee on cotton yarn import. Therefore, the ginning sector should also be provided with such reliefs such as incentives and reduced power rates among other reliefs to face the problem.
