Staff Reporter
Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Standing Committee on Agriculture called upon the government to get rid of cartelisation in the seed and pesticides sector for development of agriculture sector.
“The substandard seed and pesticides may hit the agriculture sector to the next level and cotton crop is one of the novel example in this regard,” the committee said in a statement issued here.
It said it was the second consecutive year that cotton growers seemed worried, as substandard seeds had again flooded local markets especially in Sindh province.
These seeds grow nothing or the germination rate is as low as 30-40 in the fields, former chairman of the committee Ahmad Jawad said adding that cotton cultivation had started in the southern parts of Sindh and South Punjab and farmers seemed troubled because of the non-availability of high productivity seeds according to the respective soil conditions.
Despite the fact that the country has best research institutes like Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) where we can produce local seeds for any crops through international cross breeding according to our weather conditions, there was no role of regulator who could check the quality of seed and pesticides on every shipment before landing in the market.
Similarly, the quality of pesticides is keep pathetic day by day “if you put one spray on the crop to kill the insect or virus, it would be most likely through that spray another virus may be hit on the same crop.
He also called upon that Government to make cotton growers stand on their own feet and bring back those to cotton cultivation who have opted for other profitable alternatives.
