Senate Standing Committee on Textile Sector in Pakistan has called on the government to take up special measures to arrest the downward trend, voicing concern over sharp decline in cotton production and area under cotton cultivation.

Pointing out that 80 per cent of cotton crop was used for generating export-oriented products, Senator Mohsin Aziz, who presided over the committee meeting recently said, farmers were switching over to other cash crops such as maize and sugarcane as they were not receiving fair price for their produce.

He said and warned that the declining trends would affect exports adversely adding that already the textile industry was facing severe hardship due to the absence of an exclusive textile policy.

The committee was informed that cotton production in Punjab last year fell 43 per cent compared to the preceding year, mainly due to unprecedented rains in the area. In Punjab, cotton cultivation acreage fell to 430,000 acres this year as compared to 540,000 acres last year.

Meanwhile, noted textile industrialist Akbar Seth, who was invited as special guest in the committee, claimed that last year growers had to face Rs 22 billion worth of losses due to price variation in the open market.