Pakistan's cotton, textile, and apparel industries are key sectors of the nation's economy; their performance can contribute to either a rise or fall in poverty. These vital industries have faced a variety of challenges and opportunities in recent years, including world cotton price instability, liberalization of the multilateral clothing and textile trade, and sharp swings in the Pakistani macroeconomic situation. Using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model and drawing on a national survey of Pakistani households, the authors of this report evaluate the consequences of several recent or prospective economic changes on Pakistan's cotton, textile, and apparel industries and poverty levels. The economic changes include an increased inflow of foreign capital, higher world cotton and textile prices, government subsidization of the textile industry, increased productivity in the cotton and textile sectors, and other possible developments. By presenting these scenarios, the report offers policymakers and analysts a guide to anticipating and shaping the future of economic growth and poverty reduction in Pakistan.

Cotton is the most important cash crop in Pakistan and cotton products export account for 55 percent of all foreign exchange earnings of the country. Nearly 26 percent of farmers grow cot-ton, and over 15 percent of total cultivated area is devoted to this crop, with production pri-marily in two provinces. Approximately 65 percent of Pakistan’s cotton is grown in Punjab, which has dry conditions, and the rest is grown in Sindh, which has a more humid climate, with negligible area under cotton in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Cotton production ac-counts for 4.5 percent of the value added in AgGDP and 0.8 per cent of GDP. It serves as the raw material for the textile industry, the country’s largest agro-industrial sector , employs 17 per-cent, earns 60 percent of foreign exchange and contributes 8.5 percent to GDP.

Excerpt from Cotton in Pakistan The Pakistan cotton industry, with production having remained almost static over the past 4 years, is at a crossroad. It must choose between remaining a major raw cotton exporter at the expense of domestic consumption, allowing the rapidly expanding textile industry to absorb an increased share of domestic production, or satisfying both needs by sharply expanding cotton production. Currently, the latter alternative appears to hold the upper hand, with industry leaders confident that the country will expand cotton production sufficiently to remain a major exporter. The Government of Pakistan also hopes to keep cotton production trending upward for the next few years. In its fourth five-year Plan, the Government has set a production target of million bales (of 480 lb. Net) for 1974-75, compared with about million in 1970-71. This would provide an exportable surplus of bales per year after the increasing domestic mill requirement of about million bales has been met. Industry officials are hopeful that as a result of rising returns to producers, about half of the production increase will take place in 1971-72. Since Pakistan has approached previous production goals, there is confidence that this one will be reached. Although there is some trend toward the longer staple varieties about three-fourths of Pakistan's outturn will probably continue to be I inch or shorter in staple length. Working in favor of production gains is the increased return to producers. Raw cotton prices received by producers in the 1970-71 season were 20 percent higher than in 1969-70. Domestic mill and export prices for Pakistan cotton have risen, but competition between the expanding local textile industry and exporters for available cotton has caused producer prices to post even larger gains than have occurred on world markets. In addition, since August 1970, exporters of raw cotton have been eligible to retain, in the form of bonus vouchers, 10 percent of the foreign exchange they earn. They can use these vouchers to import a large number of items for which foreign exchange is not otherwise available, or they can sell them for up to 175 percent of their face value. This makes raw cotton exports more competitive with cotton textile exports. Which earn retention of 45 percent of foreign exchange. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Survey of the development of the cotton branch of the textile industry in Pakistan - covers production costs, labour productivity, input output, capital, profit, price trends, supply and demand, trade, etc., and includes extensive statistical tables.