Cotton crisis deepens amid record imports

The cotton industry stands on the brink of a full-blown crisis as ineffective policies and neglect by policymakers have put the agricultural backbone and textile sector in dire straits. The unchecked wave of duty-free imports of cotton and yarn has set the stage for a perfect storm, endangering farmers, ginners and the entire textile value chain. Experts fear that the looming threat of a cotton crisis similar to the ongoing wheat debacle is due to ineffective policies and neglect from policymakers. Ihsanul Haq, chairman of the Cotton Ginners Forum, explained that the unprecedented wheat imports earlier this year, combined with the government's failure to purchase wheat from farmers at the official rate of Rs3,900 per 40 kg, plunged the agricultural and milling sectors into severe financial turmoil.