Promoting Agricultural Value Chains
In the OIC Member Countries
107
Watering is another issue which affects the quality of cotton. Since the price of cotton depends
on its weight, pickers tend to add water to increase its weight by picking cotton in the morning
when there is still dew on it and by storing it on wet soil (State Bank of Pakistan, 2005;
Ghulam, 2014).
Although most of the cotton production takes place in the informal sector, the central
Government and the provinces have undertaken various initiatives to increase quality control
in recent years. The Cotton Control Act aims to eliminate contamination by punishing the
possession of contaminated cotton, and contamination-free cotton production programmes
are set up by the Government with noticeable achievement, e.g. Clean Cotton programme
(International Cotton Advisory Committee, 2012). Moreover, the Government established the
Pakistan Cotton Standard Institute (PCSI) to develop and uphold quality standards for seed
cotton and cotton lint. While the PCSI trains value chain actors on quality improvement and
maintenance of the quality, the impact seems to be limited due to little cooperation from the
ginners (Ghulam, 2014). In its 2014-2019 Textile Policy, the Government of Pakistan openly
criticises that “the resistance to grading and standardisation of cotton bales by ginners and
spinners alike has consistently lowered the value of Pakistani cotton by around 10 cents per
pound in the international market” (Government of Pakistan, 2015).
Further efforts to promote adherence to quality standards are implemented by the Pakistan
Central Cotton Committee (PCCC), a semi-autonomous body with the Federal Minister for
Textile Industry as its president. The PCCC develops extensive research and outreach
programmes to improve the quality of cotton production, processing and marketing. This is
supported by a network of organisations with quality labs to test, evaluate and monitor the
fibre quality of cotton.6
Social and environmental standards also exist in the cotton chain. Firstly, Pakistan signed the
most important International Labour Conventions and established policies such as a National
Action Plan for Children, National Education Policy, Provincial Plans of Action to Combat Child
Labour. However, there are various implementation gaps in the cotton sector, and inadequate
working conditions and child and forced labour continue to exist (United States Department of
Labor, 2013; Better Cotton Initiative & IDH, 2013).
Secondly, global voluntary standards have been introduced to cotton production in Pakistan.
While production according to Fairtrade and organic standards remains negligible, production
that follows the standard of the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) has recently increased since its
first introduction in Pakistan in 2010. The BCI is a global multi-stakeholder initiative,
headquartered in Geneva, which brings together actors from all stages of the value chain,
multinational brands, and civil society organisations to transform cotton production and make
sustainable cotton production the mainstream standard. Since 2010, BCI and WWF-Pakistan
have worked in Punjab and Sindh with smallholder farmers and in 2013, they reached 46,500
farmers producing 157,000 million tonnes of Better Cotton lint on 193,000 hectares (BCI,
2014). In comparison with conventional farmers the programme observed a 15 percent
increase in yields, a 24 and 17 percent decrease in pesticides and synthetic inputs,
respectively, and a 42 percent higher income for BCI farmers through improved input
management and pest control (BCI, 2014).
6 Organisations with quality laboratories include the PSCI, Pakistan Central Cotton Committee, Synthetic Fiber Development
& Application Center, Karachi, Textile Institute of Pakistan, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, National Textile University,
Faisalabad, Nuclear Institute of Agriculture & Biology, Faisalabad, and National Institute of Biotechnology & Genetic
Engineering, Faisalabad.