Karin Astrid Siegmann
karin@sdpi.org
Pakistan's economic engine is fuelled by cotton, yet the people working in the cotton sector belong to the poorest segments of society.
Cotton is grown on more than three million hectares (ha) in Pakistan: this accounts for about one sixth of the total cultivated area. Annual production surpassed 2.4 million tonnes in the 2004/05 harvest, Pakistan's highest ever cotton production. This made the country the fourth largest producer in the world. This 'white gold' accounts directly for a tenth of the value added in agriculture. Through its use in the textile and clothing industries, Pakistan's industrial backbone, cotton is indirectly responsible for another tenth of the GDP and for about two thirds of the total merchandise exports.
Pakistan's productivity fares well in international comparison (Table 1). Although, for example, Pakistani cotton is sown on about one third of the acreage that is covered by Indian cotton fields, its harvest is not substantially less.
Table 1: Production, area, and yield of seed cotton by major producers, 2004
Production (1000t) |
Area (1000ha) |
Yield (kg/ha) |
|
World |
67375 |
34925 |
1929 |
China |
18000 |
5700 |
3158 |
USA |
12388 |
5351 |
2315 |
India |
7200 |
8700 |
828 |
Pakistan |
6000 |
3100 |
1935 |
Brazil |
3530 |
1362 |
2592 |
| Source: Government of Pakistan (2006) | |||
The most important cotton-growing Districts in Punjab are located in the Seraiki belt of Southern Punjab. They include Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur, Vehari, Muzzafargarh, Lodhran, Khanewal, Rajanpur, Multan, Bahalwalnagar and Dera Ghazi Khan. Sixteen cotton-growing districts of Punjab account for about 80 per cent of the national cotton-producing area. The majority of the remaining 20 per cent of fields are in Sindh, where the hot and dry climate, especially in Districts Sanghar, Ghotki, Khairpur, Nawabshah, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Nowshero Feroze and Sukkur, is conducive to cotton-farming. Although, in terms of acreage and harvest, cotton production is higher in Punjab than in Sindh, average yields are higher in the main cotton-cultivating Districts of Sindh.
Paradoxically however, this productivity has not made the cotton belt rich. To cite a significant factor, access to food in cotton growing districts of Pakistan is low to extremely low. Amongst the poor, women and girls are further marginalised. The women of rural Pakistan, including those in the cotton belt, play a major role in agricultural production, livestock raising and cottage industries. The majority of women, working as unpaid family helpers, are not paid for their crucial economic contribution. They participate in operations related to crop production such as sowing, transplanting, weeding and harvesting, as well as in post-harvest operations. They carry out these tasks in addition to their domestic chores of cooking, taking care of children, the elderly and disabled, fetching water and fuel and cleaning and maintaining the house. Obviously, these women work longer hours than men do. Surveys have shown that a woman works 12 to 15 hours a day on various economic activities and household chores.
The women of rural Pakistan, including those in the cotton belt, play a major role in agricultural production, livestock raising and cottage industries.. |
Despite their involvement in the rural economy, women have hardly any ownership of or control over resources. Women work and produce on land they commonly do not own. Due to the societal perception of men as the household's main 'breadwinners' and women as supplementary income-earners, women are prevented from searching for paid employment and, consequently, have limited access to or control over financial resources. Where women do earn an income it is often the ‘stick’ of poverty rather than the ‘carrot’ of gainful employment which persuades them to join the labour force.
Patriarchal gender norms reinforce this economic subordination. Girls are taught not to value themselves when it comes to equality with males in the family. This is expressed in the distribution of food between female and male household members, as well as in the lack of decision-making power regarding education, health, marriage and family-planning. Significant gender gaps in education and health indicators are the result. For instance, in rural Punjab and Sindh, female adult literacy is 30 per cent and 14 per cent respectively, on average, as compared to 56 per cent for men in both provinces. The cotton-growing Districts of Punjab rank the lowest in terms of female literacy.
More than one and a half million farmers produce cotton. This means that the 'white gold' contributes to the income of every tenth household in the country. More than two thirds of cotton producers own some or all of their land, whereas one fifth are share-croppers with no fields of their own. Earnings from cotton sales accounts for 40 per cent and 45 per cent of the household income of landowners and sharecroppers, respectively. However, rather than making them rich, this high degree of dependence on one crop makes them vulnerable. As compared to wheat farmers, for example, who use their produce for household consumption as well as for sale, cotton-producers are entirely at the mercy of market fluctuations.
As a result, among cotton farmers, 40 per cent of landowners and two thirds of sharecroppers are in the lowest two fifths of the consumption distribution. Households depending on sharecropping and selling labour for their livelihoods include about one fifth of the rural population and have the highest incidence of poverty. Small and marginal farmers also face risks due to the high incidence of pest infestation and the equally high financial and health hazards resulting from the use and overuse of pesticides for 'plant protection.' About eighty percent of all pesticides consumed in Pakistan are used on cotton fields. The so-called 'pesticide treadmill'; i.e. the need to use more and more pesticides as pests develop resistances, as well as the fact that pesticide prices have dropped since imports were liberalised in 1995, have raised pesticide consumption considerably. During the same period, yields have not risen significantly, however, which raises questions about the effectiveness of increased pesticide consumption. The effects on the landowners, their workers and community members’ health are disastrous. Pesticide poisoning, with symptoms ranging from mild headache via skin allergies to cancer of internal organs, is chronic among cotton pickers, especially in the post-harvest period.
Pesticides and fertilizers alone represent about a third of the costs incurred in cotton cultivation. The lack of both storage facilities and the money to hold on to the produce for better prices, force farmers to sell their produce immediately after the harvest in order to meet cash requirements for the purchase of inputs. Often, they will even sell their standing crop. The high rate of inflation during the past years has aggravated the situation. As a result, many farmers are trapped in a permanent spiral of indebtedness. The resulting enormous pressure to produce higher yields, especially on low-income small farms and on tenants, also induces a lack of concern for health risks, as well as degradation of the water and soil, and, thus, future productivity. Many farm-owning and labouring families have no knowledge of the health risks attendant on exposure to pesticides. The dramatic growth rates in cotton production have generated high demand for women's labour, as harvesting cotton is an almost exclusively female task. One million tonnes of cotton are hand-picked by women and girls every year between August and February in Pakistan's cotton belt. In an environment characterized by poverty, cotton pickers are socially and economically even more disadvantaged. As compared to other agricultural workers, their wages are low. Their precarious status as seasonal, contract and piece rate workers, as well as their poverty and poor bargaining power, contribute to suppressing their earnings. Their health and that of their children is at risk because of the chronic exposure to poisonous pesticides, but they lack the means to access medical treatment.
A recent study undertaken by the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (Orden et al., 2006) identifies close ties between global cotton markets and poverty in Pakistan's cotton belt. It shows that lower cotton prices in Pakistan, resulting from the decline in world prices in the second half of the 1990s, contributed to the rising levels of poverty among cotton-producing households.
A simulated increase of cotton prices in 2001/02, back toward the higher levels of earlier years, was assumed to move a substantial number of cotton farmers out of poverty. At the national level, a 20 per cent increase in cotton prices is estimated to reduce poverty among all cotton-producing households from 40 per cent to 28 per cent. According to the simulation, almost two million people would thus be pulled out of poverty. The findings stress the case for a reduction of subsidies for cotton farmers, especially in the USA, which artificially increase global prices for the 'white gold' by 10-25 per cent.
Yet in practice, it is questionable whether global price increases would trickle down to those at the beginning of the cotton chain as smoothly as assumed in model simulations. Power differentials between different players in Pakistan's 'cotton league' play a crucial role. The substantial market power of yarn manufacturers in particular, obviously has helped them to ensure low input costs and thus their competitiveness and economic gain. The picture that emerges here rather displays economic and export growth that is based on the weak bargaining power and, resultantly, the poor earnings of the most labour-intensive part of cotton and cotton-based textile and cotton production. It is time to acknowledge that national economic successes are based on exploitation of the marginalised - and to change this situation.
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