Experts in Pakistan recently attributed the decline in cotton production in the last decade to the indifferent approach of stakeholders and decision makers. In a seminar, they blamed the food security ministry, fertilizers and pesticide firms, tax authorities and the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association for lower per bale cotton price and per hectare yield.
At the seminar, titled ‘Need for Revolutionizing the Cotton Industry in Pakistan’, the experts urged the government to come out with a minimum support price for cotton like those for wheat and sugarcane to back the declining cotton-related small industries, according to Pakistani media reports.Experts in Pakistan recently attributed the decline in cotton production in the last decade to the indifferent approach of stakeholders and decision makers. In a seminar, they blamed the food security ministry, fertilizers and pesticide firms, tax authorities and the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association for lower per bale cotton price and per hectare yield#
The seminar was organized by the Centre for Global & Strategic Studies (CGSS) and Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) and attended by government representatives, armed forces officers, diplomats, industry experts and students.
It was also proposed that sugar mills should be transferred from cotton-growing areas to sugarcane-producing areas because the presence of sugar mills lured growers to sow seeds of other crops than cotton. Establishment of sugar mills in cotton growing areas was allowed on political considerations to benefit a few blue-eyed families but it had harmed cotton production, it was felt. The experts also urged scientists to focus on refined and improved cotton seed varieties.
Pakistan is the only country in its Asian neighbourhood experiencing negative growth in the textile sector, Punjab unit chairman of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association Pervaiz Malik said.
Pakistan is facing low cotton yield because of area stagnation, higher input cost and encroachment by sugarcane and corn, Yusuf Zafar, chairman of Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), said. (DS)
ALCHEMPro News Desk – India
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