Last month, the government devised a new strategy to realise the yield potential of the cotton varieties, improve per acre yield and enhance the cotton production in the country. The government agencies have been directed to help the farmers overcome their problems and facilitate them in their efforts to increase the production.
Since domestic cotton consumption has increased appreciably, all out efforts need to be made to enhance its production. The features of the decisions reflect the keenness of the government to boost cotton production in the country.
At the time of independence, the size of cotton crop in Pakistan was around one million bales which increased to 7.2 million in 1985/86 and 14.5 million in 2004/05 season.
The present condition of cotton crop in our country reveals that we may harvest a record crop of about 15.0 million bales provided the weather remains favourable during the next month. Pakistan has been amongst the biggest exporter of raw cotton till the late eighties, but with the rapid expansion of our textile industry during the last two decades we became the importer of raw cotton.
The textile sector imported about 2.2 million bales during the season 2003/04. However, the last year's bumper crop and the good condition of current crop speak of the potential of our agriculture sector to feed the local textile industry. In view of the pace of expansion of our textile industry, the agriculture sector has to do a lot more to fulfil their requirements in the days to come.
The production of cotton at around 15.0 million bales is undoubtedly a remarkable achievement which is the result of hard work of the growers, efforts of our agriculturists Scientists/breeders, increase in acreage, sowing of high yielding varieties etc. The agriculture scientists/breeders played a significant role to enhance cotton production in the country by evolving high yielding varieties.
In various cotton research stations in the country, our agri scientists/breeders have been working on various varieties to enhance the yield potential as well as improve the fiber characteristics since long. In the beginning, we had varieties like 4Fand LSS with 24-25mm staple length and a micronaire value above 5.5 and the couple of textile mills in the country used that cotton to spin 10 counts yarn.
In view of the gradual expansion of our textile industry as well as the demand for exports, the new varieties like AC-134, B557, BS-1, MNH-93, CIM-70, MS-40, NIAB-78, K-68, Qalandri etc were evolved with better yield and improved fiber characteristics, which remained successful for a long time in the growers and spinners point of view. The growers fetched better yield and the spinner produced yarn up to 20 counts. The agriculture sector fed back the textile sector pretty well by fulfilling its requirement in terms of both quantity and quality.
In due course of time, the textile industry switched over to finer counts after modernisation and started producing up to 80 counts. Generally they have been using local cotton up to 40 counts and importing long staple cotton for the higher counts. Since the last decade, our agriculture sector has been struggling against various challenges. On one hand they had to fight against deadly pest infestations like the American boll worm and CLCV (both did substantial damage to cotton crop few years back), on the other hand they were supposed to provide the cotton to the expanding textile sector with modernised sophisticated machinery, according to their requirements.
Since the old varieties had lost their fiber characteristics too, the scientists/breeders in the country have been working on different programs to evolve new varieties. Their work mainly focused on high yielding, genetically disease resistant varieties with improved fiber characteristics.
They worked on Biotechnology/genetic engineering also and developed transgenic cotton in which a gene from a soil Bacterium ie Bacillus Thuringiensis was transferred into CIM-443 which was called Bt.cotton, resistant to bollworm particularly American bollworm. CLCV resisted cultivars like CIM-1100, CIM-443, CIM-446, CIM-448, CIM-473, &CIM-482 etc were also developed.
The process of induction of new varieties continued in order to obtain better selection of disease resistant and high yielding varieties. At present, CIM-499, CIM-496, CIM-473, BH-160, BH-36, VH-142, NIAB-78, FH-901 are the main varieties along with so many others under cultivation in the country.
The emphases of the government and its agencies have been mainly on the improvement of yield per acre. However a substantial work in the public and private sector was also carried out in connection with the improvement of cotton fiber characteristics too, the vital factor for the textile sector. The fiber length and strength was improved appreciably and the higher micronaire was brought down to an acceptable range.
However, the textile sector has been facing some acute problems of cotton quality with regards to fiber characteristics beside excessive trash and contamination since last few years. In order to produce high quality yarn the cotton with regular fiber properties having low CV% is required whereas wide variation is observed in different fiber properties right from the beginning of the cotton season.
The statistical data of the last few years shows that some varieties sown have micronaire value around 5 in the first pick which drops to 3.8-4.4 in second pick and goes beyond 3.5 in third pick in a period of four months. There are some new varieties which have standard micronaire 4-4.2 in the very first pick and drops to 3.7-3.8 in second pick.
That means we are having high CV% with regards to micronaire value even in the first phase of the season. However the micronaire value of the bulk of our cotton production ranges from 3.8-4.5 which is acceptable for the yarn produced in the country, provided the strength remains intact. Unfortunately the strength drops considerably when the micronaire falls bellow 4.2.
The cotton varieties sown in the 80's had the tensile strength of above 90,000 PSI whereas the strength of prevailing varieties range between 83 to 86 thousands PSI during the prime time which is directly effecting the CLSP of the yarn.
The problem of decrease in fiber strength is a serious matter. The latest sophisticated textile machinery requires high fiber strength to produce quality yarn. The varieties under cultivation also vary in staple length ranging between 26mm to 28mm.
Some unapproved varieties have a staple length even up to 30mm. In a few cases only, the ginning is carried out variety wise separately, otherwise every thing goes mixed in a bale. Therefore the variation in fiber properties is not only found bale to bale but within the bale too, resulting in irregular lint with low uniformity ratio causing unevenness in the yarn.
An answer generally given to the question of the irregular quality of the cotton is to have strict zoning of the varieties in the country. We have been singing this song for several years without any positive result. As a matter of fact, the government takes interest only in the improvement of yield per acre and to achieve the goal, it has involved the private sector in the multiplication and distribution of seed. A number of private seeds corporations are distributing seed of unapproved varieties of cotton. This seed mafia has created a mess in the cotton field just to make money. No one actually knows how many varieties are being sown in the country.
When we have an unknown number of varieties (approved/unapproved) sown, how come the zoning be observed. Besides, no one amongst law enforcing persons can differentiate amongst different varieties. It is good to involve the private sector in the process of multiplication and distribution of seed to increase the cotton production in the country but their activities need to be monitored to ensure that they are distributing pure certified seed only.
To overcome the problem of irregularity of cotton, first of all we need to reduce the number of varieties and the sowing of varieties with close fiber properties should be allowed in a division The sowing of indeterminate varieties with more plasticity (adaptability, heat & drought, pest tolerant) should be encouraged rather than determinate ones.
In order to improve the yield, the tolerance of cotton varieties needs to be enhanced too. A number of cotton producing countries have 20-30% flower shedding rate whereas in Pakistan it is around 50% and that means we are loosing 20-30% crop due to intolerant varieties.
The agriculturists scientists/breeders sometimes get their varieties recommended/approved in haste without attaining the required results, using their lobbies. The example of CIM-443, CIM-446, CIM-448, CIM-482 etc is there which could not show consistency and wider adaptability across the country, hence they vanished from the field in a couple of years. CIM-707 and CIM-506 with medium long staple were approved in 2004 but were not sown anywhere on a commercial basis. These varieties also bear a high micronaire which is undesirable in the spinning point of view.
In the private sector, there are some breeders doing a good job on cotton varieties particularly on long staple varieties but they have yet to reach the target with regards to the spinning view point. One of the renowned breeders was complaining about the poor response of the local textile mills toward his long staple varieties. On testing the samples, the length of fibers were found 30-32mm with a micronaire around 5.0. The long staple cotton with high micronaire is undesirable for spinning fine counts. That's why the spinners gave a cold shoulder to his produce.
The concerned agencies may have different data on papers but the results, collected from commercial sowing at the spinning end, demand the redressing of the problems in order to meet the challenges of the day.
Since we have entered the regime of globalisation and most of our textile units have been modernised accordingly, the provision of raw material (cotton) with high precision of fiber characteristics to produce high quality yarn has become a matter of vital importance. Therefore the government, its agencies, the agricultural scientists/breeders, besides making efforts to increase the yield, should also pay attention towards the improvement of fiber characteristics according to the requirement of the end user, the textile sector who needs quality cotton with low contamination and trash to produce high quality yarn.