Pakistan Faces Cotton Production Constraints amidst Increasing Local Demand

Cotton production in Pakistan, already grown on 7.65 million acres, has to cope with the demand of its textile industry which will require three million bales in 2008. However, problems still continue to plague the cotton industry in the country, says Ijaz Ahmad Rao in an article analyzing the cotton situation in Pakistan.

Ahmad Rao enumerates several constraints: low yield, high price of agricultural inputs, pest problems, shortage of good quality seeds, and lack of advanced technologies. Two options are proposed – increase area planted to cotton, and the other is to adopt modern technologies, such as the use of biotech cotton.

Expanding production area is no longer possible, notes Rao, while Pakistan’s market with inadequate intellectual property protection and untried biosafety rules are forcing farmers to plant illegal Bt cotton seeds, thus undermining the potential of the modern varieties.

Email Ijaz Ahmad Rao at luckystarpk@yahoo.com or read his article at
http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/jan-2007/8/bnews6.php.