Cotton production
The Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association sees a 35pc decrease in cotton arrivals at the ginning factories by Oct 3. Anew, the country is feared to miss this year's official cotton production target of over 10m bales. The crop output will be half its peak of some 14m bales achieved about a decade ago.
Many issues are to blame for the consistently dismal performance of the cotton crop, which supplies raw material to the country's $13bn export-oriented textile industry.
Nevertheless, government policies allowing establishment of sugar mills in the cotton belt, lack of research in the development of new seed varieties, growers' increasing expenditure on fertilisers and insecticides, and climate change are among the major reasons behind the dwindling crop output in recent years.
The situation has forced the Senate chairman to take notice of the plight of cotton growers and ginners and ask the upper house panel on commerce to prepare a comprehensive report. What that means for the future of the crop, which helps the country fetch about 60pc of its export revenues annually, is not clear yet.
The government is aware of the situation but hasn't implemented any effective measures to reverse the trend of falling production and deteriorating product quality, meaning that the country's economy will continue to pay a heavy price for this official neglect. It also means that textile exporters will become more reliant on imported cotton in the coming years to meet their requirements at the expense of their international competitiveness and foreign exchange, which is already in short supply.
It is unfortunate that the country is watching the destruction of one of its major crops at a time when other cotton-producing nations have dramatically increased their productivity and improved the quality of their crop by investing in the latest seed technology over the last two decades. Although the majority of Pakistani farmers also switched to Bt cotton many years back, the adoption of poor-quality, uncertified genetically modified varieties in an unregulated market has done great harm to the cotton economy instead of helping it.
If the government wants to protect the country's textile exports, it will have to invest substantially in seed research to develop disease-resistant and high-yield varieties to once again make cotton an attractive, profitable crop for farmers.