Staff Reporter
Karachi
Chairman of National Business Group of FPCCI, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain has said that ignored by past regimes, agriculture sector is emerging as a threat to national security, food security and industrial sector.
Talking to business community on Friday, she said that the steps of the government and the central bank have started improving the economic situation but the agriculture sector can reverse all the gains.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that wheat is central to the food security while cotton is a lifeline for the industrial sector and both of the crops are going down.
Hundreds of textile mills providing millions of jobs and sixty percent of the foreign exchange are dependent on cotton but the cotton production and area under cultivation is shrinking since a decade, the business leader said.
On one hand, the textile industry buys low-quality cotton which is also most expansive while on the other hand growers are facing financial crunch which indicates the serious problems this sector is facing.
The cotton is available for 71.29 cents per pound in the international market while its price in Pakistan is 76.85 cents.
