Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Friday lauded the government’s move to revive the cotton economy.

The government has decided to intervene in the market and buy cotton if prices fell down below the level of Rs5000 per maund which will infuse confidence in growers and increase the area under cultivation which was going down for a decade, he said.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that supporting cotton crop will not only benefit millions of farmers but also support the largest industrial and export sector of textiles while exports will get a boost.

Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that reducing the cost of doing business for farmers is the key to revive the cotton economy, boost its production, and stop expansive imports.

He noted that billions of dollars are being wasted on cotton imports therefore the government has decided to focus on quality seeds and pesticides, improve research and development, stop exploitation of farmers, improve ginning and spinning, and keep TCP ready to intervene as ignoring intervention since 2011 has resulted in heavy losses.

The last year’s production was reduced to seven million bales which was lowest in three decades resulting in heavy losses to all the stakeholders.

He said that following the collapse of last cotton crop, over five million bales of cotton were imported to bridge the shortfall which is not affordable in the long run.

The cotton growers deserve affordable loans and cheap pesticides to swing to profit, he said, adding that some experts are of the view that cultivation in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will be a good option and these provinces are not as prone to pests as Punjab.

He said that the cotton target is almost 3.5 million bales over the last year’s target which can only be achieved if the decisions are implemented properly while the reservations of spinning mills should also be considered which fear that they will have to pay more for the raw material.