MULTAN, Oct 20: The rapid fall in cotton prices at the peak picking season has perturbed the farmers, who fear that the situation could affect the wheat sowing process on a large scale.

A progressive farmer from Bahawalpur Azra Mehmood Sheikh said that the farming community was facing difficulties to sell their cotton crop as the ginning factories refused to purchase cotton from them.She said that the price of cotton remained constant between Rs2,000 to Rs2,100 per maund during July and August but with the start of picking season in south Punjab the ginning factories reduced the price.

She said that despite the stability in prices in the international market and the devaluation of Pakistani currency, ginning factories were not ready to pay even Rs1,500 per maund to the farmers.

Haji Arshad from Rahim Yar Khan felt the buyers seemed to have lost interest in the market creating depressing conditions for the commodity as it has matured.

He said that the farmers had stopped picking because they can not store the crop, while they can only start the wheat sowing when the fields are cleared from cotton.

Southern Punjab produces more than 35 per cent of annual wheat production.

Khawja Muhammad Shoaib of Farmers Vision Forum said luckily, the harvesting season of two major crops, cotton and rice, has started at the same time and “if we could maintain both the crops we can earn sufficient foreign exchange.”

He said that the country could earn more than $4 billion from rice while about $8 billion would be generated by trade in cotton and its related products.

He said that the arrival of cotton started in July due to its early sowing and the price of cottonseed was Rs2,100 per maund that was acceptable to the farming community. But as the arrival reached its peak after mid-Sept cotton related industry reduced its price and the farmers were forced to sell their crop for even less than Rs1,500 per maund.

He said that the government should settle the issues of load-shedding and banks cash flow that are the major excuses of the textile industry.

He said that if the textile industry purchased lint according to international parity the price of one maund should be Rs4,000 to Rs4,200, while the price of cottonseed should not be less than Rs3,400 per maund.

Former chairman Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association Rasheed Khan said that the major factors behind the decreasing prices of cotton were uncertainty in political and economic situation, high mark-up rates and load- shedding.

He said that the ginners were avoiding purchasing cotton because their ginning units faced more than 16 hours load-shedding daily.