May 06 2009
Pakistani farmers asked to adopt hybrid cotton
Speakers at a seminar said farmers in the country must switch to genetically modified cotton to obtain higher yields and better quality product.
Titled “The cotton-textile economy of Pakistan: inter-sectoral linkages and effects on rural and urban poverty,” the seminar was organised by the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC).
Speaking on the occasion, experts said cotton played an important part in shaping up the economy of Pakistan, and improving cotton yield would be beneficial for the rural population as well as the textile sector of the country.
Dr Caesar B. Cororaton, a research fellow at the Institute for Society, Culture and Environment,Virginia State University of the US, said cotton, textile and attire industries were key sectors of the nation’s economy.
He said these vital industries had faced a variety of challenges and opportunities in recent years not only due to local issues but al so because of world cotton price instability.
“The overall cotton to textile chain has suffered due to liberalisation of the multilateral clothing and textile trade besides sharp swings in the Pakistani macroeconomic situation,” Dr Cororaton said.
However, he said, Pakistani farmers had not formally adapted to genetically modified BT cotton but there was some field evidence of its unregulated use.
He stressed for higher involvement of researches and official machinery for widescale cultivation of BT cotton.
Dr Cororaton said the economic changes, including an increased inflow of foreign capital, higher world cotton and textile prices, would encourage subsidies to the textile industry and result in increased productivity in the cotton and textile sectors.
By presenting these scenarios, he offered policymakers and analysts to foresee shaping up the future of economic growth and poverty reduction in Pakistan.
Presenting the historic developments in the cotton industry, he said export controls and taxes kept cotton prices below international levels until the mid-1990s but during the subsequent years successive reforms to trade and pricing policies had rationalised the prices in the country.
“This has also given a greater role for the private sector in this trade,” he added.
Professor David Orden, director and senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, USA, also spoke.
The seminar was informed that despite constraints in its production, storage, and ginning sectors the production of cotton yarn increased at an annual rate of 4.7 per cent during 1990-2005 in Pakistan. Besides Pakistan’s share in the world output increased to nearly 10 per cent during the period.
While cotton-related products accounted for nearly 60 per cent of Pakistan’s export earnings, the textile industry still produce mostly fabrics of relatively low quality though it has been successful in expanding its exports of some higher-value products
Source: SeedQuest
