Pakistan's economy has undergone considerable diversification over time, yet the agriculture sector is still its backbone. With its present contribution to GDP at 23.87%, agriculture accounts for half of the total employed labour force. It also serves as a base sector for the country's major industries, like textile and sugar. The agriculture sector showed a positive growth of 5.27% during 1995-96. The growth would have been much higher, had major crops like cotton and wheat not experienced a setback (Finance Division, 1996).

Cotton is the most important cash crop cultivated in Pakistan. It is, hence, the main source of our...

The area under cotton production increased constantly from 1947-48 to 1991-92 (Table 1). In 1991-92, cotton was planted on 2.836 million hectares yielding record output of 12.822 million bales, at an average yield of 769 kg/ha, which was comparable with other countries (Table 2). Deviations from the increasing trend appeared in 1983 and 1992. The year 1983-84 saw an unprecedented, 48% loss in cotton production -- from 4.8 million bales to 2.9 million bales. The main causes of this setback were extremely heavy rains, flare up of insect pests (especially white fly) and improper and scanty plant protection measures. Cotton...

Pakistan is the world's largest exporter of cotton yarn and the third largest exporter of raw cotton. Cotton and its made-ups are major foreign exchange earners for the country. Their share in export earnings was 66.6% in 1996-97. Cotton yarn continued to be the major export item under the cotton group. In 1996-97, it controlled 25 and 22% respectively, of the export earnings. Higher value added products, such as ready-made garments, contributed 13.2%. The major buyers of cotton yarn and cloth are mentioned in Table 19 and of cotton in Table 20.

Table 20 shows the trend in the value...

Cotton is cultivated on more than 30 million hectares in 80 countries. In Pakistan it is grown on approximately 2.8 million hectares, out of a total cultivated area of 20 million hectares. It accounts for more than 50 per cent of our foreign exchange earnings. Cotton production supports 281 textile mills, 991 ginneries and 281 oil expellers. It is estimated that there are about 15,000-20,000 indigenous oil expellers (kohlus). About one third of the industrial labour is employed in various cotton-based industries. There is a strong relationship between cotton growth and the country’s overall GDP growth.

Cotton is the most...