LAHORE: Cotton crop stakeholders fear further decline in cotton production unless measures are taken to address the issues hampering its cultivation.

They noted with concern decline in cotton cultivation area during the last couple of years and denial of reasonable return to farmers at a meeting in Faisalabad the other day. The meet was chaired Faisalabad Agriculture University Vice-Chancellor Dr Muhammad Ashraf while former National Assembly speaker Syed Fakhar Imam was the chief guest.

Mr Imam regretted that agriculture remained ignored during the past 25 years and had those at the helm invested on f arming and human resource, the country would have been much better economically.

He advocated introduction of genetic technology for crops and said that none must be afraid of the scientific developments being made in the f arming sector.

He wondered why farm chemicals werenot being manufactured locally instead of importing them though indigenous production was very much feasible.

He claimed that because of monopoly of the (large) buyers, local farmers were paid 15 per cent less than world prices of various crops.

Dr Ashraf called for focusing on small landholders, who were 97 per cent of total f armers, in official policies and sought that f arm tools must be prepared in accordance and size of their needs.

He said like cotton, horticulture and oilseed crops also needed special attention of the authorities concerned to make the country in general and farming community in particular prosperous.

Dr Anjum Buttar, DG (extension) of the Punjab agriculture department, pointed out four issues facing cotton farmers and needing urgent attention -provision of healthy certified seed, quality pesticide, mechanical picking, and support price of at least Rs4000 per 40kg.

Admitting that area under cotton cultivation was on the decline for the last two years, he said alarmingly high tempera-ture was deteriorating cotton yield and counted the steps the government was taking to overcome water scarcity, pest management and other issues.

Dr Kausar Abdullah, dean of post-graduate studies at the FC College, wondered why the authorities were not forming price boards for each crop as per policy decision made years ago.

Holding the `sugar mafia` responsible for cotton [area] decline, he called for launching a drive against it. He suggested that the support price should be given by establishing a crop zone and where the growers were not getting good cotton output because of natural issues they should be recommended alternative crops.

Dr Jalal Arif of the Entomology Department of the Agriculture University pointed out that area under cotton crop declined by over 12 per cent this year as compared with 8.5 per cent last year.

He said 35-50 per cent yield was lost to sucking insect pests in the country each year and suggested both chemical and non-chemical measures for controlling the problem.He said dealers of pesticides were also part of the problem as the farmers would usually consult them in case of pest attacks and they instead of giving the best advice would urge the growers to use the spray available with them.

Dr Arif called for making a law against retaining cotton stalk by the growers which would become a source for spread of whitefly.

Farmers` representative Khalid Khokhar lamented that national priorities discouraged cotton cultivation. He said how cotton could be promoted when the authorities would allow duty-f ree import of the silver fiber. On the other hand there was 40 per cent duty on the import of sugar and unlike cotton rebate was offered on sugar export.

He said it was decided and promised at many high-level meetings that cotton crop would be offered support price but the decision was never implemented.

Others who attended the moot and gave their input included Dr Abid, Dr Sagheer, Asif Majeed, Saad Akbar, Azra Sheikh and others.