EDITORIAL: The 33 percent year-on-year decline in cotton production would be bad news in the best of times, but it’s much worse now because it will not only deliver a blow to the struggling cotton sector — on which the country’s flagship export sector depends — but also bite into foreign exchange reserves at a very difficult time as authorities scramble for last minute imports.
And even though cotton prices are depressed in the international market right now, the shortfall will still deliver a USD 2 billion bill, at least, to the government for this year alone.
The bigger problem is that the main challenges threatening not just cotton but the entire agriculture sector — climate change, water shortage and especially insufficient funding for research and development — have still not been properly addressed.
Experts, analysts and stakeholders, this space included, have been crying themselves hoarse for years but the government remains blind to the need to pivot towards the necessity of embracing modern techniques.
For example, it’s been known for the longest time that Pakistan is among the countries that suffer the most from climate change, yet there is no urgency in government departments to handle the fallout.
Water shortage has also been a big problem for a very long time, and despite desperate calls for shifting to modern techniques like drip irrigation and high-quality seeds, there is still no sign of change on the ground even though the persistent decline in cotton production has far reaching implications far beyond the agri sector. And growing reliance on imported cotton to meet the demands of the textile industry has become a major financial burden.
It is unfortunate that despite recurrent production shortfalls the federal government can do little more than issue generic, politically correct statements with little concrete follow-up.
The ministry for national food security and research has been unable to resolve the eight-year-long dispute over cotton cess between the textile industry and the Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC).
And even though the ministry has again directed PCCC and APTMA to settle outstanding cess dues, and the latter has pledged to resume payments from January 2025, this is not the first time such promises have been made so stakeholders are rightly waiting for proof of the pudding before believing in the headlines.
There’s also no denying that investment in research and development, particularly in seed technology, is critical to keeping the sector competitive in the modern age. High-yield, pest-resistant cotton seeds — especially those resistant to whiteflies and pink bollworms — must be developed and distributed.
Climate-smart cotton varieties are also essential to mitigating the effects of environmental challenges and ensuring sustainable production.
So far the government has ignored all these steps, and the results speak for themselves. It’s a shame that successive governments have allowed one of the country’s biggest natural comparative advantages to go to waste for no reason at all. This may well be the government’s last chance to wake up and turn things around.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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