KARACHI: A consistent fall in cotton cultivation area for the last seven years has eventually reduced crop production to little over 10 million bales this year from the bumper crop of 15m bales in 2011-12.

Almost 9m acres were under cotton cultivation in 2011-12. The sowing area steeply declined to 5.9m acres in 2018-19 as opposed to government estimates of 7.3m acres, but no successive governments took any action to arrest the situation, with the result that the country now relies on imported cotton to meet local demand.

Over the past few years, growers shifted from cotton to sugarcane due to various reasons — the most prominent being the political clout wielded by the sugar industry. Furthermore, growers preferred sugarcane as it is a less labour-intensive crop and the plant root stays for a minimum of three crops.

Cotton is not only a cash crop but is also ideal for a country like Pakistan which is faced with water shortage because it is a semi-drought crop and needs far less water for irrigation than any other crop, said Mian Mahmood Ahmed, a grower and ginner.

“Unfortunately cotton production has been reduced to the extent that today the country has to import a substantial quantity of cotton by spending between $1-1.5 billion to meet domestic consumption of around 15m bales,” he said.

Declining area under cotton cultivation over the years is resulting in lesser cotton production and if the trend is not arrested it will ultimately result in footing bigger bill for cotton imports and a burden on country’s depleted foreign exchange reserves.

Sindh outshines Punjab

According to the latest figures issued by Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA), cotton production up to Jan 1 stood at 10.273m bales — 7.52 per cent short crop compared to last season (2017-18) when production stood at 11.108m bales.

During the period under review, Sindh produced 4.111m bales or 2.42pc less crop over corresponding period of last year when production stood at 4.213m bales.

Interestingly, Sindh still managed to produce more cotton as compared Punjab despite facing severe irrigation water shortage at the initial stage.

Cotton production in Punjab stood at 6.162m bales or 10.63pc less than last season when production stood at 6.895m bales.

It would be in the best interest of the country if the incumbent government chalks out a plan to increase cotton production or war footings and by increasing cultivation land for the cop and restricting other crops from replacing areas.

The new agriculture policy should ensure that sugarcane and wheat production should be brought down to the level to only to meet local consumption since surplus production of these two crops has to be exported by providing subsidies. Hence cotton production should be maximised and there should be exportable surplus since it never needed subsidy on exports.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2019