The Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) would cooperate with several multinational companies (MNCs) for importing good quality seeds, in order to increase the production of cotton in the country, said PCGA chairman Mukhtar Ahmed Khan Baloch.
While talking to a delegation of the American multinational chemical firm Monsanto, in the city of Multan in Punjab, the PCGA official said that the local seed suppliers in the country were providing substandard and less germinated seed to farmers at exorbitant rates, and the cotton growers were incurring loss of billions of rupees due to these low-quality seeds, reports Business Recorder.
Mr. Baloch said that PCGA would not rely on just one multinational company but contact several MNCs across developed countries like Brazil, China, India and others in order to help save the cotton economy.
The PCGA official sought help from MNCs to cooperate with Pakistani cotton growers in order to boost the cotton production in the country, through technology transfer and import of good quality seeds.
According to Mr. Baloch, transfer of research and technology to Pakistan may facilitate a revolution in the life of cotton growers in the country, and the Government was trying to ensure the supply of qualitative seed to farmers since 1993.
Earlier in January, the PCGA asked the Government to import cotton seeds from China as the unavailability of germinated seeds at right time is affecting the cotton crop, and farmers in the Punjab and Sindh provinces have incurred huge monetary losses due to spurious and substandard seeds.
By January 15, 2014, about 12.88 million bales of cotton reached ginneries across the country, showing a rise of 7.16 percent compared to arrival of 12.022 million bales during the corresponding period of last season, according to the PCGA.
In 2012-13 cotton season, Pakistan’s cotton output fell by 12.81 percent year-on-year to 12.915 million bales, compared to the previous season’s production of 14.813 million bales, mainly because of less sowing of the crop.
