PAKISTAN "THE COTTON GROWERS SINCE 3,000 BC"


HISTORY
Cotton is a plant, it grows wild in many places on the earth, but it has been known about, cultivated and put to use by people of many lands for centuries.

3,000BC No one knows how old cotton is, but pieces of cotton cloth found in Mexican caves proved to be at least 7,000 years old. In the Indus River Valley in Pakistan cotton was being grown, spun and woven in 3,000BC.

Cotton was referred to in a Hindu Rig-Veda hymn mentioning "threads in the loom." It is generally believed that the first cultivation of cotton was in India, though it grew wild in several locations around the world. People living in Egypt's Nile Valley and across the world in Peru were also familiar with cotton.

1500s Cotton was grown by American Indians in the early 1500's and the Spanish raised a cotton crop in Florida in 1556.

1607 Seed was planted by colonists along the James River in Virginia. The colonists were able to produce much cotton but were held back by lack of mechanical know-how.

1790 An English mill worker, Samuel Slater, migrated to America and used his knowledge to build the first American cotton mill.

1793 Eli Whitney patented a machine called the cotton gin to separate the fibers from the seed, a job that had previously been done by hand. Volume per worker increased from 1lb to 50lbs per worker. Harvesting the cotton was another limitation on productivity. Working by hand a picker could pick 450lbs of seed and cotton boll per day.

1850-1871 A picking device was first patented in 1850 and a stripper in 1871.

Gradually better machinery was developed and by the 1930's the Rust Brothers of Mississippi were using a one row cotton picker to pick 8,000 lbs per day. Today's monster 6 row pickers can cover 100 acres in a day and pick 100,000 lbs per day.

THE PLANT

The cotton plant is called Gossypium, a member of the Mallow family. There are about 39 different species but only 4 have been domesticated of which the Mexican plant Gossypium hirsutum has become the predominant commercial success. The flower bud blooms and develops into an oval fruit called a boll that splits open at maturity to reveal a mass of long white hairs called lint which covers the numerous brown or black seeds.

CULTIVATION

Successful cultivation requires a long growing season with plenty of sunshine and water, such areas being found in tropical and warm subtropical locations. After harvesting the previous years crop the old plants are reduced to stubble. Seed is planted in spring either following ploughing or, in some cases, directly into the ground under the old stubble.

Cultivators and herbicides are used to control weed growth. Rows of plants used to be 30 - 40 inches apart but in recent years new harvesting techniques have allowed this to reduce to 15 inches apart. The underside of each leaf contains a small cup-like structure holding nectar. This makes the plant attractive to a variety of insect pests chiefly the boll weevil, a pink larva of a small moth, which burrows into the boll and can destroy the crop. The use of early maturing plans strains together with insecticides controls the problem.

The plant can also suffer from wilt caused by a fungus which enters the root from the soil then manufactures a poison. There is no treatment for this but good land management and the use of genetically modified plants has contained the problem. By Autumn the crop is ready for harvesting.

HARVESTING
Harvesting depends on the bolls opening, achieved by early frosts or chemicals. Prior to that the plants are sprayed with defoliants to remove the leaves. This usually happens when bolls are 60-80% open and about two weeks before picking. The removal of leaves makes the final ripening more even, eliminates material that could stain the fibers and makes easier picking with less waste collected by the harvester.

YIELDS
Are expressed in bales of raw cotton per hectare (1 bale =500lbs or 227Kgs) and like all crops will vary due to soil, climate, irrigation and crop management. Without irrigation yields of 3-5 bales per hectare can be expected but this can double with irrigation. Modern technology equips harvesters with satellite navigation so that field/yield maps can be produced to indicate trouble spots and help crop planning.

PROCESSING
The bolls together with sticks, dirt and leaves arrive at the mill and are sucked out of the lorries by long pipes. After removing the debris the cotton moves to the gin stand where the lint is separated from the seeds. The lint is packed into 500lb bales and is ready for spinning.

The cottonseed, once a waste problem, is now a valuable by-product, broken down by special mills in which the oil is extracted. The seed husks become animal feed, the residual lint becomes padding for furniture and cotton wool swabs, and the left over sediment provides fatty acids for industrial products.

PRODUCTION STATISTICS
Before World War II textile cotton accounted for 80% of material handled by textile mills, but growth of synthetic fibers has reduced this to about 35% today. In 2002 world production of cotton stood at 21m tones. Leading producers are now the United States, China, India Pakistan, Mexico, Egypt, Brazil and Turkey.

Watch Cotton Grow !

TEXTILES VITAL PART OF PAKISTAN ECONMY

TODAYS STORIES !
Textiles are the most important industry in Pakistan. It accounts for approximately 40 percent of manufacturing employment, over 60 percent of total exports, and over 30 percent of value-added production. Pakistan's textile industry, based on locally-grown cotton, produces cotton yarn, cotton cloth, and made-up textiles and apparel. Its small woolen industry uses mostly imported fibers to manufacture woolen yarn, acrylic yarn, fabrics, shawls blankets and carpets. The polyester fiber and yarn industry has also grown significantly in recent years, and meets over 80 percent of country requirements, but viscose and acrylic fibers are imported. The artificial silk and synthetic weaving industry remains largely in the unorganized sector.

Textile sector is a backbone of our country, so textile is an important sector of the country economy and Pakistan should focus on optimal utilization of its strength since it comprises 60 percent of the country exports.

The availability of cheap labor and basic cotton as raw material for textile industry has played the principal role in the growth of the cotton textile industry in Pakistan.

Cotton production at 11 million bales in 2007 as compared to 13.02 million bales of last year a decline of 2.02 million bales.

The performance of textile industry during the last 5 years have been satisfactory but in the current year increase in cotton prices, weather problem and high financial charges threat textile industry. Increase in competition from the neighbor countries can create challenges for the textile industry.

The current scenario possess challenges firstly to its globally positioning and secondly to increase market share by both increase in volume as well as increase in unit values.

The unit value can only be increase to produce value added quality. The value addition require up gradation in resource development both in manufacturing and marketing.

The focus should be on R&D development, technical innovation and product development with the goal of moving up in the global textile value chain.

Textile production is comprised of cotton ginning, cotton yarn, cotton fabric, fabric processing, home textile, towels, hosiery & Knit wear and readymade garments

DISCLAIMER
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