An investigative insight of factors responsible for cotton paradigm shifting in the Punjab, Pakistan

Cotton is an important commodity to improve economic development of rural dwellers and the economy of Pakistan. It contributes 5.2 percent in value addition to the agriculture sector and more than 50 percent share of the total exports of the country. But the cotton production has witnessed a huge decline of 20 percent from 13.96 million bales to 9.86 million bales over the last five years from 2014-18, resulting in a large loss to the GDP of the country. This rapid shifting of cotton towards sugarcane and other crops in core cotton areas of Punjab has severely damaged the large textile industry of Pakistan. Therefore, the present study was planned to investigate the factors behind shifting of cotton crop in the purposively selected district Rahim Yar Khan as it was the leading cotton producing district in the Punjab and had been hit hard by this paradigm shift. The population of study was comprised of all those farmers who have been completely or partially shifted from cotton to sugarcane crop. Multistage sampling technique was adopted to select the sample size. A baseline survey was conducted to prepare a list of farmers who had been shifted from cotton to sugarcane production. A well-prepared interview schedule was administered for data collection in this study. It was revealed that the cost of certified cotton seed and fertilizers were the major economic factors; adulteration of pesticides and unavailability of certified seed were the production factors; poor quality of water and extreme heat waves were the natural factors; market fluctuation and middleman monopoly were the marketing factors and expansion of sugar industry and unchecked involvement of middleman were the major policy factors behind the paradigm shift of cotton crop as per the responses obtained from the respondents