Sarsabz highlights significance of cotton through the stories of ‘Khaki Desan’

Gone are the days when our mothers would open the rustic family trunk and take out the hand-knitted khaees and dariyan made from our indigenous cotton and proudly set them for the frequent guests. Now, not only are the guests just occasional but we have fast fashion taking over with polyester homeware and clothing made at a large scale; making them more or less disposable items to be replaced after a few seasons use. In this “trend” change not many are aware that in the background how an entire industry has been left to silently die.

Fatima Fertilizer Company Limited, is a local fertilizer player that through its brand Sarsabz Fertilizers has time and again proven that it cares about our rural community, its traditions, its culture and most of all its economy. It has recently launched on its YouTube Channel a new Sarsabz Kahani i.e. a series of short films based on true stories from the rural community.

The title of the short film is “Khaki Desan” and it is based upon the story of our local cotton which traces its roots back to Indus Valley Civilization. The story unfolds as the protagonist, Jugno Mohsin, an entrepreneur and public figure searches for the lost variety of cotton called Khaki Desan and learns the lost art of making hand woven cotton fabric from it.

Fatima Fertilizer has helped her by providing technical knowledge to grow the cotton variety as well as supported her in setting up a workshop under the name “Haveli Crafts” to market the final products. At a micro level, the workshop provides a great working environment and honourable source of income to almost 100+ women of the village Sher Garh but on a macro level it is reigniting an industry that supported millions of women in agriculture and rural economy.

The story of this unique collaboration is multifaceted in many ways. Most importantly, it refers to the recent decline of cotton production in Pakistan which is detrimental for our economic stability.

As per the Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, cotton crop holds a 0.8 percent share in GDP and contributes 5.2% in the agriculture value addition. Cotton also holds a 51 percent share in the country’s total foreign exchange earnings. Despite this economic significance, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics has reported that in the past 10 years cotton production has almost halved from 13.6 million bales in 2011/12 to about 7 million in 2020/21. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has also reported that the crop area of cotton has significantly reduced to 2.2 million hectares, the lowest since FY82.

This has also severely affected the crop’s overall yield and production. Although in the current context, the economic survey of Pakistan for FY 2021-22 reported that cotton crop increased from 7.1 million bales reported last year to 8.3 million bales during 2021-22. However, this gradual recovery in crop yield is faced with many challenges including a significantly reduced cropping area, inconsistent gas supply to fertilizer plants resulting in limited availability of locally produced Nitrophos and Calcium Ammonium Nitrate (which gives at least 10% greater yields of cotton as compared to conventional fertilizers) and increasing cost of farm inputs for an already burdened farmer due to high market inflation.

In the good old days, cotton harvest season was celebrated with great festivity and fervour across the cotton belt which is now mainly a sugarcane and rice belt dotted with abandoned cotton ginning mills and scattered housing societies. The stats clearly indicate that each year we had a bumper cotton crop our GDP grew and directly impacted the prosperity of our citizens especially our farmers. We need a clear cotton policy that starts with increased research spending on developing high quality seed varieties that can combat water scarcity, pest attacks effectively and give us high yields. The policy needs to effectively help farmers get good returns on their investment in cotton so that those who have converted to sugarcane or rice can revert. It should then involve the textile sector which should be encouraged to not just be a sourcing hub for global brands but market their own brands around the world as proudly “made from finest Pakistani cotton”.

To watch the full episode of Khaki Desan, please visit the official YouTube channel of Sarsabz and follow the hashtags #SarsabzKahani #SalamKissan #KhakiDesan.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022