The Pakistan Cotton Ginners’ Association (PCGA) has submitted budget proposals to the Federal government demanding a bailout-cum-incentive package. This comes as no surprise, since the annual cotton production target has been missed again and the area under cotton has declined sharply by 16 per cent.

Over the last couple of years, Pakistan has seen abysmally low cotton production. At present, cotton arrivals are 10.5 million bales, despite an increase over last year’s 9.7 million bales, it is still short of the initial 14.1 million target that was revised to just 11 million bales later. The textile economy has been suffering from shortage of raw material on top of all its other miseries.

Ginners have demanded a National Cotton Policy though how this would tie into the broader Agriculture Policy that Punjab is currently developing is uncertain. The development of such a policy would be a welcome move though given the country’s track record, it should be taken with a grain of salt.