Growers decry cotton price manipulation by traders

Asif Ali Zardari and Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah urged to take notice of blatant exploitation by traders

HYDERABAD:

The farmers have decried that the government regulations and apparent connivance of the bureaucracy have caused around Rs4 billion losses to cotton growers as the traders have dropped the rate by Rs7,000 per maund.

The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, a farmers' lobbying group, warned the provincial government that all the farmers organisations in the province will resort to a province wide protest movement if their problems not addressed.

Chairing a meeting of the chamber its President, Syed Miran Muhammad Shah, who is a brother of the federal minister Syed Navid Qamar, said a group of Kohistan based traders have drastically reduced the price of cotton from Rs11,000 to just Rs4,000 per maund. He added that the traders have been citing the ongoing monsoon rains as the reason.

The SCA demanded that the Sindh government should immediately fix the price of cotton at Rs10,000 per maund.

According to him, all the grower organisations in the province are preparing a charter of demands which will be submitted to the Sindh government. "If our demands are not accepted, we will launch a strong protest movement across Sindh after the July 24 local government elections," he warned.

He informed that all the grower bodies have decided to join hands to launch a struggle for protection of their rights.

Shah urged former president and PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to take notice of their blatant exploitation by a bunch of the traders.

Shah questioned why the bureaucracy including the chief secretary, the divisional commissioners and the deputy commissioners are tight lipped on the price issue? He pointed out that the prices of all the fertilisers and other agro inputs are skyrocketing without any governmental control.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18^th, 2022.