Cotton and Products Annual Report 

Cotton is a significant money crop and the life saver of Pakistan’s material industry. The cotton crop is planted on 14% of arable land during the “Kharif” or rainstorm season from April to June.

Creation is moved in two regions with Punjab and Sindh representing around 65 and 35 percent, separately, of planting region. More than 90% of cotton is created by little ranchers developing under five hectares of land. An expected 1.5 million ranchers develop cotton.

Pakistan’s cotton creation has been in steep decrease since MY 2014/15 when cotton yield was at its latest high of 10.6 million bunches (480-lb)1. In seven years, Pakistan’s cotton creation has dropped to an expected 4.5 million bundles (480-lb) in MY 2020/21, a diminishing of 61%; region planted has dropped from 2.95 MHA to an expected 2.2 MHA, a reduction of 25% for this equivalent period. Explanations behind the drawn out decrease in cotton creation are inferable from environmental change, the limited hereditary base of cotton germplasm, and unavailability to the most recent ages of GE cottonseed.

The material area is the biggest mechanical area in Pakistan and records for around 40% of the modern workforce and utilizes 10 million individuals. This area additionally creates eight percent of Pakistan’s Gross Domestic Product and around 60% of unfamiliar trade profit, the biggest of some other item. The coordinated cotton and material area incorporate 1,050 ginneries, 430 material factories, and 350 cottonseed smashers and oil purifiers. Production:

Pakistan’s MY (Aug/Jul) 2021/22 cotton production is forecast at 5.3 million 480 lb. bales (6.8 million 170 kg bales or 1.16 million metric tons (MMT)), up 18 percent from the revised 2020/21 estimate, due to the availability of new seed varieties, better on farm pest and disease management, and government subsidization of inputs. Farmers’ planting decisions are driven by expected prices in addition to factors such as relative cost of production from competing crops, input availability, and government support. In MY 2021/22, the area devoted to cotton is projected to decrease to 2.1 MHA, five percent lower than the last year, mainly due to a shift to other remunerable crops like corn, rice, and sugarcane. The long-term decline in area planted is mainly due to the potential threat of pest attacks, uncertain weather conditions, and insufficient availability of certified seed.

Cotton planting in Sindh is expected to begin late March while the main producing province of Punjab is anticipated to start in early April 2021. Punjab officials prohibit planting prior to April 1, 2021 to counter the timing of pink bollworm activity in cotton producing areas. There are no reports of locust attacks across Pakistan so far this year. Locusts remain a potential threat and can resurface during summer and may adversely affect cotton production.

Cotton yields are expected to recover from the last year as only core cotton farmers are expected to grow cotton and will be utilizing their experiences to enhance productivity. Borderline farmers will shift to other more profitable crops like sugarcane, rice and corn, because of better prices and government support. Sugarcane farmers receive a support price which guarantees them a fixed price with the mills; rice is Pakistan’s major export commodity that fetches a good price in the international and local markets; and corn being a major ingredient for poultry feed, also commands a good price in the domestic market. These alternate crops give good returns to farmers and are also less prone to insect attack and diseases as compared to cotton.

 In contrast, cotton growers do not receive a support price and prices in the local market are affected by a variety of factors like the size of the crop, prices in the international market, government and industry policy, and the demand for cotton and textile products in the domestic and international market Based on sufficient rainfall from December 2020 to January 2021 and heavy winter snowfall, the water availability is expected to remain almost normal for the ensuing summer crops. The MY 2021/22 yields projected at 549 kg per hectare, 23 percent higher than the current year’s estimate of 445 kg per hectare, based on availability of seed from new varieties, better on farm pest and disease management, and government support. There are a number of factors that affect cotton yields in Pakistan, including the following:

• Climate Change: Pakistan is among those countries that are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Changing weather conditions, such as unexpected rainfall and temperature changes at critical stages of crop growth can spur pest attack that exact a heavy toll on crop productivity.
• Germplasm: The narrow genetic base of cotton germplasm is prone to insect and diseases and is one of the major factors influencing crop productivity in the country.
• Biotechnology: Pakistan relies on a back-crossed 18-year-old biotechnology event, one that is less effective against bollworms and diseases. This event was obtained illicitly, calling into question Pakistan’s ability to safeguard against and enforce intellectual property (IP) infringements. The current reluctance of technology providers to invest in Pakistan is related to these IP concerns and remains an obstacle for the country’s cotton farmers in accessing the latest generations of GE cottonseed.
• Pest Infestations: Sucking insects, such as white fly, continue to spread cotton leaf curl virus (CLCV), a disease which drastically reduces yields; and chewing insects, such as pink bollworm, which impairs cotton quality, lowers yield, and requires extra effort on the part of farmers to manage pest levels.
• Locusts: The most recent cyclical emergence of locusts as a threat to all vegetation started in 2019 and continues to be a threat in the cotton producing areas bordering Cholistan in Sindh and Thar in Punjab.
• Cottonseed Quality: This is a perpetual issue with low germination rates and weak certification.
• Government Policy: While a national textile policy has been drafted, this remains stalled and has not yet been approved nor implemented.

Factors that are supportive of higher yields include:

• New Cotton Varieties: On January 28, 2021 the Punjab Seed Council (PSC) approved 15

new cotton varieties for cultivation in Pakistan. The major cotton-producing provinces of

Punjab and Sindh are expected to benefit from these varieties. Field sources reveal that the

supply of certified seed is better than last year. One such new variety was developed as a

result of a USDA sponsored program (Cotton Productivity Enhancement Program), which

developed the first ever CLCV resistant cotton variety IR-NIBGE-II. This variety was

developed through National Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE)

and approved by the PSC and is now available for general cultivation in Pakistan. More material is in the pipeline with different examination foundations to yield brings about future.

• Better Pest and Disease Management: Farmers are progressively mindful of the dangers related with the feeble articulation of the Bt quality in neighborhood cotton plants and the need to screen for bollworms and different infections. They are likewise progressively sensitive to the harm of sucking and biting bugs and work to join alleviation measures in the field to deal with these vermin.

• Subsidies: The public authority proceeds to vigorously finance the inventory of information sources like seed, compost, water, pesticides and energy for ranchers. MY 2020/21 creation is assessed at 4.5 million 480 lb. bundles, 27% lower than the past year’s creation of 6.2 million 480 lb. bundles. This assessment depends on the close last appearance figure from the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association and data sourced from different sources. This setback underway was created from 2.2 MHA, a 10 percent decline in territory planted contrasted with MY 2019/20. During the beginning phases of harvest development, some cotton land was at first harmed by grasshopper assaults. Serious downpours during the storm season (July-September) likewise influenced the harvest in the primary developing spaces of Punjab and Sindh territories. Sources demonstrate that around 1,000,000 bundles of cotton were harmed because of these downpours. Weighty rains additionally brought about extreme nuisance pervasions of whitefly also, pink boll worms that went uncontrolled all through the developing season for the most part due to the ineffectualness of existing pesticides. The MY 2020/21 cotton crop was on track until August 2020, at the point when pressure from bugs started produce results, bringing about a lower creation gauge of 4.5 million 480- lb parcels.

Pakistan mostly creates short and medium staple cotton. Build up quality keeps on being an issue inside the business dependent on the nature of the picking and ginning that bring about changing bunch sizes and high levels of unfamiliar matter. Furthermore, ranchers regularly plant different assortments as a support against poor germination rates. Consequently, distinguishing explicit evaluations or properties from a specific assortment isn’t finished. Status of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) Cotton: Since March 2019, the Pakistan government has required to be postponed Bt preliminaries on all harvests, aside from cotton. The Public Biosafety Committee has not affirmed any applications for research center, green house or field preliminaries for corn and other food crops put together by either open exploration organizations or privately owned businesses.

Administrative endorsement for the development and commercialization of GE cotton, which was allowed in 2010, stays unaffected and a few GE cottonseed assortments are affirmed each year. On January 28, 2021, the PSC affirmed 15 new cotton assortments, out of which 14 containing the Bt quality are presently accessible for development in Pakistan.

Bt cotton is the lone harvest as of now under business creation in Pakistan. A large portion of the endorsed GE cottonseed assortments contain one of the two delivered occasions: MON 531 (Cry1Ac quality) or (Cry1Ab quality). Assortments with these occasions shield cotton from the hatchlings of lepidopterans (i.e., butterflies, moths) and were presented for development in Pakistan a couple of years prior. Pakistan’s Center of Excellence in Atomic Biology (CEMB) created five twofold quality transgenic cotton assortments that are presently being  advertised monetarily. In 2021, ranchers utilized in excess of 30 GE cottonseed assortments to plant 2.2 MHA,  a grounds that includes more than 95% of Pakistan’s all out cotton planted region.

Utilization: MY 2021/22 utilization is figure at 10.3 million 480 lb. parcels (13.2 million 170 kg bunches or 2.24 MMT), somewhat above a year ago’s utilization level. The minor expansion in cotton utilization is generally because of the shift of material business to Pakistan because of its moderately powerful regulation of the pandemic. The nearly better circumstance in Pakistan provoked worldwide purchasers to part of the way redirect their orders to Pakistani material producers, because of the deteriorating of the COVID-19 circumstance in other nations. Industry sources are confident that improved energy supplies will be useful in overseeing orders in an ideal way. Likewise, the European Union’s augmentation of its “Summed up System of Inclinations Plus” plan to Pakistan likewise is relied upon to go about as an upgrade for higher cotton utilization.

Cotton keeps on confronting rivalry from other man-made strands and producers in Asia. In any case, materials keep on assuming a significant part in Pakistan’s economy. The material area is the biggest modern area in Pakistan and records for around 40% of the mechanical workforce and utilizes 10 million individuals. Expanded unfamiliar interest in Pakistan’s foundation and energy area could help spike extra development in Pakistan’s material industry.

Exchange:

Pakistan’s material industry represents 60% of the country’s yearly fare income. The energetic speed of material creation is in progress just through government support and enormous volumes of imported cotton and man-made fiber (MMF). Significant providers of imported cotton are the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Egypt, and West African nations; providers of MMF are China and Europe. Backing from the Pakistan government is as assessment alleviation, lower energy costs, and financed financing for the extension of creation and foundation of new material factories.

Pakistan’s material industry contributes essentially to the nation’s fares and is contained both a huge scope coordinated area just as a profoundly divided limited scope area. The material worth chain comprises of turning, weaving, handling, printing, and piece of clothing fabricating (e.g., knitwear, garments also, readymade pieces of clothing) areas. Pakistan sends out crude material, semi-completed and completed cotton and material items to various nations, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, the European Union, Canada, and Australia.

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Pakistan is a net shipper of cotton, basically because of solid interest for better evaluations of cotton for mixing and creating send out arranged quality material items. Ordinary imports incorporate upland and long staple cotton, just as medium staple cotton, to expand homegrown supplies for preparing and reexport. During MY 2020/21, huge setbacks in homegrown creation required significant

expansions in the importation of short and medium staple cotton. While cotton yield for MY 2021/22 is conjecture up 18%, creation levels stay at notable lows and Pakistan’s imports for MY 2021/22 are projected to stay at 5.0 million parcels (480 lb). MY 2019/20 imports have been overhauled to 4.0 million bundles to reflect official information.

In spite of sizeable imports, Pakistan keeps on sending out little volumes of cotton during harvest. MY 2021/22 fares are conjecture at 50,000 480 lb. bundles, with the primary objective nations being Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Thailand, and China.