Cotton is seen to be the backbone of the exporting and related production industries like a textile in Pakistan. Pakistan stood at 4th position in producing cotton in 2012-13 with some 11 million bales but before that, the period in between 1980-90 is considered as the golden period for Pakistan regarding cotton production in which rapid growth was seen. Earlier in 2014-15 the production increased 11 per cent and holds the record of 15 million bales.

That was the last time of growth. Since then, the production of cotton has started to decline instantly. As in 2020-21, production of cotton is estimated at about 6.3 million bales following the 8 million bales previous year with the reduction of 58 per cent this year since 2014-15.

The reasons behind this tragic drop are low profitability, bad quality seed, water shortage, and finally, lack of awareness of technology.

The desperation behind the scene is not only the production reduction but more painful is the import on larger-scale with little foreign exchange as Pakistan is the third biggest consumer of cotton, so the shortage of cotton can only be balanced by large-scale import which a surviving economy cannot bear.

The policymakers should take it on the serous note or else the country would face serious economical issues in near future.

FARAZ ALI SHAH,

Lahore.