The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) and the World Wide Fund (WWF), Pakistan, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to better management practices in cotton crop growing.
The agreement, signed by Punjab zone Aptma Chairman Akber Sheikh and (WWF-Pakistan) Director General Ali Habib, aims at preparing plan for sustainable cotton production and to meet growing demand of - textile chains like Ikea, Gap, Addidas, Nike etc - through better cotton initiative (BCI).
Cotton produced under the BMPs will fetch premium prices and as a consequence, the farmers will gain in terms of lesser inputs, ie water, pesticides, to produce cleaner cotton. The WWF-Pakistan has provided better management practices to small farmers in some cotton growing districts. The approach is to establish framer field schools in designated areas, providing farmers with training or facilitating skills enhancing workshops.
The main objective is to link field level activities with the existing market by strengthening supply chain. The local cotton and textile industry commits to accept these challenges.
The Aptma's role would be to give institutional support to promote sustainable cotton production, development of BMP sustainable cotton standards and facilitate in developing BMP cotton procurement mechanism. The WWF-Pakistan will demonstrate and implement the BMPs in Bahawalpur and Yazman tehsil of Bahawalpur district through participatory activities.
It will also help disseminate the BMP knowledge to more than 20,000 farmers through brochures, print and electronic media, holding of workshops/seminars etc. It will also provide technical support on trial basis in Rahimyar Khan.
The WWF-Pakistan will also document the progress and results of the project for people and environment and assess against a baseline through an effective monitoring and evolution system, he added. Meanwhile, the Punjab zone Aptma has backed a poverty eradication programme, announced by Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gillani.
Punjab zone Aptma Chairman Akber Sheikh has said if the new government took the textile industry into confidence, Pakistan's textile industry will be able to double the current level of textile exports to 20 billion dollars in the new government's tenure of five years.
He said the government must make industry-friendly policies with the consultation of the industry. Sheikh said sustained poverty eradication was impossible without the growth of commodity producing sector, which included agriculture and industry. Unfortunately, the previous government concentrated on growth of services sector whose benefits did not get down to the common man.
Revival of industry, which was the main source of job creation, was a must for sustainable policy, he added. On the 30 percent increase in minimum wage rate, Sheikh expressed the opinion that only five percent of the workforce got the benefit of the raise.
He said that the entire agriculture workforce was out of the ambit of the worker-related laws. He also said that the main affectee of the raise was the organised large scale-manufacturing Sector and that the exporting sector would have its feasibility negatively affected by this raise.
It was, therefore, important that implementation of this measure should be with the consultation of the industry and should be part of the overall industry policy instead of an isolated announcement, he added.
Sheikh said that already a 20 percent electricity rate increase for the industry had been implemented, beginning on March 1 without consultation with the industry. Furthermore, a 30 per cent gas rate increase was in the works. Combined effect of all these increases would be total destruction of the industry. Sheikh also said he hoped the new government would take the industry into confidence while formulating economic policies.