Daily Times

Pakistan is one of the world’s five major cotton-producing countries. However, production has been steadily dwindling in recent years, for which the climate crisis is to blame. Though cotton typically thrives in hot and dry climates, excessive heat reduces both the quantity and quality of harvests with plants becoming increasingly vulnerable to pests and other cotton-killing insects. The destructive potential of rising temperatures has been felt since 2015; generating year-to-year seasonal shifts, both in the form of unexpected rains and dry weather.

In the past ten years, cotton production has almost halved from 13.6 million bales in 2011 to around seven million in 2021. This year, cotton production is at its lowest in four decades. Last year’s floods certainly didn’t help things, hitting a whopping 40 per cent of the cotton crop and leaving large chunks of land entirely uncultivable.

Hundreds of textile mills have halted their operations due to a shortage of high-quality cotton, soaring food costs and an inconsistent recovery of payments from buyers in flood-hit areas. With little to no support from the state, 20-25 per cent of Pakistan’s entire labour force is headed straight for unemployment. Cotton processing facilities have shut down and truck drivers have nothing to transport either, missing out on months of warnings with no signs of respite in the near future.

But climate change isn’t our only concern. Cotton cultivation simply isn’t as lucrative as it used to be a decade ago. While farm inputs have grown expensive over time, the price of cotton has remained low, driving farmers to opt for more lucrative crops such as rice and sugarcane and ultimately making local micro-environments less suitable for cotton production.

All hope is not lost just yet-on the contrary, an agricultural economy like ours can benefit from funding the research and development of innovative seed varieties that can resist higher temperatures and exhibit stronger pest tolerance. It might also help to modify cropping patterns based on changing temperatures and water availability throughout the year so that our farmers are better prepared for disaster when it strikes and can work around it as opposed to waiting for the storm to clear. *