Farmers deplore absence of price regulation for crops

Say could not reap the profit of what they had sown

HYDERABAD:

The Sindh Abadgar Board has blamed the government for absence of regulatory measures to protect the farmers from alleged exploitation by the mills and the middlemen.

A meeting of the board, chaired by its senior vice president Syed Mahmood Nawaz Shah in Hyderabad, regretted that while the cost of cultivation is consistently going up, the prices of agricultural produce are being manipulated downwards.

The growers' lobby said due to manipulated slump in the market they could not reap the profit of the rice and cotton harvest they had sown and raised with sheer hardwork.

They pointed out that in 2023 the price of cotton seed was notified at Rs8,500 per 40 kilograms and that of the paddy at Rs3,500 per 40 kg. However, the prices have been brought down to Rs6,500 for cotton and Rs2,500 for paddy. "The growers, therefore, showed deep concern on prices of commodities [which are] going below the cost of production," a statement issued after the meeting reads.

They said, consequently, the growers have curtailed investments on the crop cultivation as reflected in around 20% decline this year in the use of fertiliser compared to 2023. "The robust agricultural GDP growth and the record exports of agricultural commodities of the last year may not be seen this year," they warned.