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Feature: Pakistan’s white gold
Pakistan is often quoted as a ‘Cotton Country’ in the world because of its fine quality of cotton. Annually, Pakistan produces 10 million bales of cotton each weighing 170 kilograms. Cotton is mainly grown in three provinces: Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan. Punjab contributes 69 per cent of the annual production whereas Sindh and Balochistan contribute 21 per cent and 10 per cent each. Pakistan exports cotton to various countries of the world. The largest amount of cotton exported by Pakistan in the past is 2.8 million bales, which is an all time record.
Last year, Pakistan exported 0.35 million bales but when the production is affected due to scanty rainfall, cotton crop diseases or rise in consumption of cotton by spinning mills, Pakistan at times has to import cotton to meet its own demand. This year, Pakistan will have to import about 1.5 million bales of cotton from various countries which include the USA, Syria and Australia. The Cotton Exchange situated on I.I. Chundrigar Road in Karachi was founded in the year 1934 and has 300 registered brokers on the list of Karachi Cotton Association. The Association has about 200 registered members. The policy of the government for cotton is that of Free Trade.
United States of America is the number one cotton producer in the world followed by Russia, China and India. Pakistan stands at number five. There are about eleven hundred cotton ginning factories in Pakistan. Three hundred factories operate in Sindh alone. These cotton ginning factories are situated in the interior areas of Sindh like Mirpurkhas, Pithoro, Kot Ghulam Muhammed, Jamshabad, Umerkot etc.
Sowing of cotton seed is done from mid March to April in Sindh every year whereas in Punjab, the sowing begins in April and continues till June. It takes about three and a half months (3 1/2 ) for the cotton plant to grow and bear fruit.
The Cotton plant needs a regular water supply. The bud in the cotton plant appears after a hundred and twenty days. During the plant’s growing stage, the cotton plants are often affected by diseases like Ballworm, Armyworm, American Ballworm, Whitefly and Curve leaf. These plants need regular monitoring and sprays of insecticides.
Ten days later, the bud opens up oozing out fine quality of white cotton which is known as Phutti. The phutti is plucked from the plants by village labourers who get one hundred rupees as daily wages or phutti equivalent to a hundred rupees. The phutti contains cotton and seed which is sold to various ginning factories in the country at different prices.
This phutti is passed through a saw-gin machine to separate the seed from the cotton. Oil is extracted from the cotton seed and the remains of the seed serves as food for cattle. The cotton obtained is passed through a huge automatic machine called ‘Press Machine’ in which the cotton is sprinkled with water and pressed to make cotton bales. Bales are then marked with the supplier’s name, weight and lot number.
‘Nayab’ and ‘K-68’ are the popular brands of cotton produced in Sindh. Punjab and Balochistan produces ‘MNH-93’, ‘CIM-446’, ‘CIM448’, etc. Manual check of cotton is done in terms of staple and strength. Quality of cotton is checked in laboratories with the help of Fibrograph machines. Cotton bales are then loaded in trucks and are sent off to different yarn spinning mills to convert the cotton into thin fine threads used for weaving cotton fabric.
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