Decreasing trend in production of cotton: APTMA perturbed over approval of low yield cotton seed varieties

ISLAMABAD: Amid the decreasing trend in production of cotton, the textile industry is upset at the government of the day on approval of questionable cotton seed varieties with low yield potential of 2.1 maunds per acre despite the fact that there are varieties available in the private sector having the ability to produce 18 maunds per acre.

The textile industry wants the approval of seed varieties of research and development institutions in private sector under different staple length parameters to meet the export targets mentioning that textile industry imported in financial year 2020-21 cotton of 5.04 million bales valued at $1.479 billion and in the first six months of current financial year, 2.22 million bales of cotton worth $821.206 million. This means the import of cotton has so far eaten up the foreign exchange reserves of $2.3 billion.

So the textile industry wants enhancement of the cotton production up to the mark in the country through the approval by Punjab and Sindh Seed Councils seed varieties of the private sector having capacity to produce more cotton up to 18 maunds per acre.

This has been unfolded in a letter of APTMA (All Pakistan Textiles Association) written on January 19, 2022 to Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Fakhar Imam, attracting his attention towards the fact that the Punjab Seed Council has accorded approval to the varieties with very low yield potential as low as 2.11 mounds per acre just to support the public sector research institutions, whereas high yielding varieties with capacity to produce 18 maunds per acre were not approved because they are from private sector R&D based seed companies. The textile industry in the letter asked the federal minister to intervene and ensure that Punjab and Sindh Seed Councils approve these high-yielding varieties based on fiber relaxation only in staple length in order to meet the domestic raw cotton requirements of the textile sector to meet export targets.

When contacted, Executive director of APTMA, Shahid Sattar, said that one of the main reasons for the decline of cotton production in the country was the lack of high yielding cotton varieties and the supply of uncertified and fake seed.

During the cropping season 2021-22, around 70-80 percent of the area under cotton cultivation was covered by uncertified seed of unapproved varieties, which is expected to persist in the coming season due to poor variety approval system by the provincial seed councils. The Punjab Seed Council, in its 55th meeting, could not consider the approval of high yielding varieties and no criteria was maintained to judge a variety in yield performance. Many more varieties having very low yield potential even 2.11 maunds per acre get approved in order to support the public sector research institutions. High yielding varieties having ability to produce cotton up to 18 maunds per acre were not approved and this is because such high yielding varieties were from the private sector R&D based seed companies.

How will these approved varieties, which have been shown to have low yield potential in SPOT Examination Trials conducted by Punjab Seed Corporation, perform in the field? the APTMA official asked the question.

In its letter, APTMA also builds its case showing details in the letter about the approved varieties having low yield and top 10 high yielding varieties, which were not considered for approval. The data clearly shows that only one private sector variety was approved in the current 55th meeting of the Punjab Seed Council, while the majority of high yielding varieties were rejected using various approaches.