Agriculturalists and farmers are afraid that cotton production may achieve the target of 15 million bales (Each bale of 170 kg weight). There would be no buyer of cotton on fair price (Rs.4000 to 5000) like 2012-13 when Pakistan produced 14.9 million bales but cotton growers could not get fair price of their produce due to cartel of APTMA . Zulfikar Ali Bhutto has established Cotton Export Corporation(CEC) at third buyer to protect the interest of growers and to end the monopoly of ginners but CEC was ended by Military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq. In 2015-16, growers produced 13.86 million bales and they have to burn their produce as a protest because of unfair prices in Market. Consequently, Government had asked Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to purchase the ginned cotton from ginners to compensate the growers. After that,cotton production is dwindling down.Besides drop in production, cotton quality is also deteriorating. Fake Bt. seeds with low toxin level and contamination are impacting both production and quality of cotton. Against the international standard of 2.5g/bales, Pakistan produces highly contaminated cotton with an average contamination of 18g/bale which causes a monetary loss of almost $1.4 billion every year.
Cotton production and area under cultivation is also falling primarily because growers have shifted to sowing sugarcane and wheat which guarantee minimum support price.
In the previous fiscal year 2018-19, area under cotton cultivation dropped to 2.37 million hectares compared to 2.7 million hectares in the preceding year – a reduction of 12.1%. Production of the crop also witnessed a decrease of 17.5% to just 9.9 million bales during the last fiscal year.
In 2017-18, cotton production reduced to 11.94 million bales from 13.96 million bales in 2014-15.
Government has set a target of 15 million bales of cotton for fiscal year 2019-20, which experts claim would be missed again.Decrease in cotton acreage, per hectare yield and imprudent government policies have taken a heavy toll on Pakistan's cotton production, Apart from technical and administrative challenges, climate change and irregular rainfall is also adding fuel to the fire. Farmers also blame widespread use of genetically modified Bt seeds, seeds mafia and water scarcity for low production of cotton. Farmers claim that seed mafias are posing a substantial threat to cotton crop by selling fake Bt seeds which results in a loss of 2-3 million cotton bales every year. The low toxin level (0.2-0.6 per gram) in those fake seeds and outdated Bt technology has lost its effectiveness against severe cotton diseases like cotton bollworms and other insects.
While talking to media, cotton experts said that situation of textile industries was worsening day-by-day due to higher tariff of electricity, gas and utilities. Increasing Mark-up rate,additional taxes and withdrawal of zero-rated facility from export sector.
“Textile mills had made deals in advance with ginners at relatively higher prices but actual price of cotton at the time of harvesting was less which resulted in losses for them,” Hameed Ahmad, an agriculture expert, told media. “On the other hand, cotton farmers had also taken advances from local ginners and middlemen and they also suffered losses due to low prices.”
Talking about crops of Sindh, he added that the cotton plantations were hit by swarms of locust pests which destroyed some of the produce.
The key reason behind 30% reduction in cotton output was continuous decline in area of cotton production, non-feasibility of good seeds, low returns and lack of awareness in farmers regarding cotton production.
“Farmers are not getting good average yield per acre,” an official in the Punjab Agriculture Department commented. “Agriculture department has fixed a target of 2.85 million acre land for production of 15 million bales of cotton.”
University of Agriculture Faisalabad Entomology Department Chairman Dr Jalal Arif shared plans to organise a national level seminar on September 20 to uplift cotton sector.
The meeting would be chaired by Jahangir Tareen as well as progressive farmers.
In southern Punjab,Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur, Rahimyar Khan, Lodhran, Khanewal, Multan, Rajanpur and Muzaffargarh are major cities of cotton production and in central Punjab, Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Sheikhupura are cotton producing areas.
Dr Jalal added that diseases caused by whitefly and bollworm and attack of locust swarm were adversely affecting cotton production.
“These insects damage the yield every season,” he lamented. “Every year, nearly four million bales are destroyed by pink bollworm and white fly.”
He further expressed sorrow that country lacked adequate technology to deal with these pests
He added that low price and yield had forced growers to shift to maize and sugarcane crops.
According to him, this was the prime time for government to deal with falling cotton production.
