Cotton growers demand incentives

ISLAMABAD: Cotton growers on Wednesday urged the government to provide a level playing field to local farmers in order to reduce cotton imports into the country. Kissan Ittehad President Khalid Khokhar asked the government to take appropriate measures to safeguard the cotton growers and increase their competitiveness through price intervention and provision of adequate equipment and financing. He deplored that foreign exchange reserves were being consumed on cotton imports every year to meet the demand of domestic textile industry. “This has become the trend despite the country having a robust cotton cultivation capacity,” he said. Cotton growers have highlighted a 10% growth in imports during fiscal year 2015-16 compared to FY15.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 10^th, 2017.

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