Besides many other reasons, adhocism is rather the main contributing factor in the failure of the government policies in various sectors. Despite being rich in resources, the country's pace of progress is drastically slow because of adhoc policies adopted in the country.
The policies instead of bearing fruit are hindering progress. Adhocism is reflected in government policies from the preparation of federal budget to the appointment of a security guard in the country.
Pakistan is amongst the top five producers of raw cotton in the world. Unfortunately we have been facing multifarious problems as far as its production, handling and consumption are concerned in the absence of any proper and well-planned policy.
In the past various policies formed during different regimes could not prove successful because they were not made or implemented on a permanent basis. It is very unfortunate that whenever any problem came up, the governments made makeshift arrangements rather than found concrete solution to resolve it. During the last few years the policies formed to handle wheat, sugarcane and cotton are good examples of adhocism.
Despite being a bulk raw cotton producer, processor, consumer and exporter of textiles, we still lack a concrete cotton and textile policy that suits the growers, ginners and spinners.
We have been amongst the leading exporters of raw cotton till the late eighties, but with the rapid expansion of our textile industry during last two decades we became importers of raw cotton. The textile sector is importing more than two million bales every year. In view of the pace of expansion of our textile industry, the agriculture sector has to make enormous efforts to fulfil its requirements.
The emphases of the government and its agencies have been mainly on enhancement of yield per acre. We need to increase the production of cotton having fibre characteristics required for our textile industry. New cotton varieties (approved/unapproved) are added to the field almost every year without proper homework.
In order to produce high quality yarn, cotton with regular fibre properties having low CV% is required whereas vide variation is observed in different fibre properties due to the presence of a number of varieties which have created a mess in the cotton field. Irregular lint with high CV% of fibre characteristics produces uneven yarn. To overcome the problem of irregularity of cotton, we need to reduce the number of varieties in the field.
The most resent issue is the sowing of Bt cotton in Pakistan. Bt cottonseed, smuggled from India, is being sown in Sindh unauthorizedly for the last couple of years. The micronaire value of some Bt variety found as high as 5.2 is undesirable for spinning purposes. Our textile ministry has reportedly allowed sowing of Bt cotton to enhance cotton production in the country.
The question is whether we are capable of producing Bt cottonseed locally to fulfil our need or we have to depend upon the smuggled seed of undesirable characteristics. Proper study and homework are required before taking any further step in this regard.
Our local spinning industry is importing about one million cotton bales of medium long and long staple cotton every year at the cost of huge foreign exchange. Verbally we have done much work to produce long staple cotton in the country but practically we are standing at zero point so far in this respect. It is time to take positive steps to produce at least medium long staple cotton in the country.
Till 1973, cotton trade was handled by the private sector. In the absence of a vast spinning industry, the major portion of raw cotton production in the country was being exported. In view of the complaints of excessive foreign matter from the foreign buyers and other malpractices, the government intervened and established Cotton Export Corporation to run the show. The purpose of CEC was to ensure minimum support price to the growers to safeguard their interest and the export of quality cotton.
CEC played its role well with regard to the improvement of raw cotton quality as well as stabilisation of cotton prices, working as a professional institution. However, the performance of the corporation started deteriorating from late 80s mainly because of unnecessary interference of the Ministry of Commerce in technical as well as financial matters and beginning of malpractices due to loose management.
Instead of trying to improve things through right-sizing and efficient management, a useful institution was abolished. Just after a couple of years, the government realised the mistake of abolition of CEC and got constrained to assign the task of CEC to TCP which had no experience in cotton handling whatsoever. The entire arrangement, including appointment of a few defunct CEC persons was made again on adhoc basis to handle such a big task. The performance of TCP, as a result, needs not to be commented on.
In order to enhance (or at least maintain) the textile exports the country has to deliver the quality in the tough market competition. The main obstacle, in terms of quality, in yarn export is contamination. The textile sector and the government, in particular, have to combat this evil. A few years ago some efforts were made to eliminate contamination. However the project did not get the attention of the government for long due to unknown reasons. After hue and cry by the stakeholders, the concerned ministries again woke up but no concrete policy could be adopted in this regard.
The project of contamination-free cotton started in the middle of the season last year when low-grade cotton started coming in, which ended up in complete failure due to adhoc arrangements made in this regard without proper planning. The method adopted to launch the project of contamination-free cotton in selected factories led to opening the door to corruption.
In 1983 the government launched a very useful CEC/FAO collaborated project that later established Pakistan Cotton Standard Institute for standardisation and classification of cotton in the country. A lot of hard work and money was spent on this project but unfortunately that programme still is waiting to be implemented. Rather due to long idleness of 23years, the system/working of PCSI has also gone outdated which needs to reformed.
The country's textile industry is flourishing but it requires increase in production of cotton with low contamination and trash percentage and improved fibre content to meet the challenges of the day. Keeping in view the targets, the Ministry of Commerce, Agriculture and Textile should adopt integrated, concrete and long-term policies in connection with the production, handling/ginning and consumption of cotton rather than short-term adhoc arrangements.
(The writer is Manager (S&C), Dewan Mushtaq Group (Textile Wing).
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