FAISALABAD, Nov 11: Pakistan can afford to import sugar--that is cheaper-- but can not afford to import cotton, says Dr Iftikhar Ahmed, chairman Plant Breeding and Genetics department, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad.

"Cotton crop is an indispensable component of our economy. It is the mainstay of the country's textile industry that provides livelihood to millions of people," he said while talking to Dawn expressing his concern over increase in sugarcane acreage in the cotton belt.

He said everybody knew that Pakistan was a water-deficient country. This problem would aggravate in years to come. In such a scenario crops like cotton instead of sugarcane are more feasible.

He said that the per acre cost of cane production was Rs23,000 and it required 60 to 80 acre inch water. On the other hand cost of cotton production was only Rs10,723 and it took 20 to 22 acre inch of water. Millions of acres were still uncultivated because of water shortage.

Dr Ehsanullah, an agronomist, was of the view that the increasing trend of sugarcane cultivation in core area for cotton would create problems for the economy, which totally depended on cotton.

"Owing to surge in sugarcane prices, it does attract farmers. But this development will have to be controlled to save the economy. Sugarcane will entirely replace the cotton if current practice continues," he warned.

Comparing the utility and effect of the two crops, Dr Iftikhar said there were 426 textile mills having seven million spindles besides, 27,000 looms in the mills and 250,000 in the non-mill sector. On the contrary, Pakistan has only 71 sugar mills, including 38 in Punjab and 28 in Sindh. "With the help of these statistics, it is not difficult to understand how much cotton-related industry is vital for the country,” he added.

Moreover, he said sugar had no export value because of high cost of production in Pakistan as compared to other sugar producing countries. Whereas cotton brings a handsome amount of foreign exchange. It makes up 1.9 per cent of the GDP and 8.6 per cent of the value-added sector in agriculture, he said.

Dr Iftikhar further said that farmers were already reluctant to sow cotton because of its low yield in the recent past due to multiple problems mainly, the pest attack. The sugar industry, he said, was taking full advantage of this situation and exploiting the farmers.

Owing to various problems, he said, cotton crop production had been inconsistent despite hollow slogans at the official level regarding use of modern technologies in agriculture sector.

The target area for cotton sowing during the current financial year was 3,247,000 hectares with 15 million bales yield projection. However, only 3,096,000 hectares--4.6 per cent less than the target--were sown.

Dr Iftikhar said when Pakistan came into existence it had production of only 1.1 million bales of cotton and in 1991-92 production touched the highest level of 12.8 million bales and then in 2004-05 it rose to 14.2 million bales.

But area of cotton since last 10 years was hovering between 3,002,000 hectares and 3,003,000 hectares.

"The government has also realized that cotton production is decreasing rapidly that's why the target for 2005-06 is revised at 12.417 million bales, lower by 13 per cent over the last year’s production, which was 14.265 million bales he added."