The support price for cotton was agreed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday at Rs8,500 per 40 kg, which is a significant step towards helping cotton producers.
He instructed that the problem be urgently brought before the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC). The prime minister encouraged the provinces to guarantee that the cotton price decision was carried out while presiding over a meeting of the agricultural task group. He said that cotton served as the foundation of Pakistan’s textile industry and expressed confidence that the move would help farmers.
PM Shehbaz emphasised the value of cotton in generating foreign exchange and promised that the government would offer all assistance to the provinces. He also said that measures were being taken to increase cotton production on an acre-by-acre basis.
He gave the Ministry of National Food Security and Research instructions to complete plans to boost cotton production. In the conference, it was brought up that the cotton harvest the previous year had been significantly reduced due to widespread flooding, severe rains, a lack of canal irrigation water, and a fertiliser issue.
But this year, it is predicted that 12.77 million bales of cotton would be produced altogether, a considerable increase over past years “due to government programmes.”
The meeting was attended by the Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, the Commerce Minister Syed Naveed Qamar, the Minister for National Food Security Tariq Bashir Cheema, the Caretaker Chief Minister of Punjab Mohsin Raza Naqvi, the PM’s Advisor Ahad Cheema, and other pertinent authorities.