Pakistan’s cotton output dropped 33.41 per cent during this season upto February. Heavy rains and pest attacks wreaked havoc with the crop. Cotton production, a mainstay of the country’s textile sector, has been declining for the past few years due to extreme weather conditions, inappropriate policies, shrinking domestic demand and the fluctuation in international cotton prices.

The pace of cotton arrivals at ginning factories also remained slow. Heavy rains in July 2015 inundated a large area of crops of rice and cotton. Low cotton prices, in the previous season, also discouraged farmers from sowing the commodity. Some farmers used their lands for other crops, like maize, fodder, vegetables due to softening domestic cotton prices.

Large areas of the cotton belt in Pakistan have been taken over by sugar mills. Cotton accounts for a 28 per cent share in major crops. The cotton crop for the current fiscal year is estimated at 10.9 million bales, falling well below the target of 15.4 million bales.

Much better yields and production for financial year ’16 are possible if growers are provided free cotton seeds and cotton is bought from them at international prices. In international markets, a slowdown in demand from China is likely to keep cotton prices low despite a fall in global cotton production.