Marketing Chain of Cotton in the Punjab, Pakistan: Skills Gap Analysis of Stakeholders

Abstract

Cotton is an important source of fiber used as main input in the textile industries throughout the world and it also has significant position in the world trade. Pakistan is 4th in terms of cotton production and 10th in terms of yield. From last few years in Pakistan, there is a serious decline in production of cotton due to untrained stakeholders. In the marketing chain of cotton in Pakistan, three stakeholders i.e. cotton growers, commission agents and ginners are the most important. The lower level of knowledge, skills, and attitude of the stakeholders results in less productivity and lower quality products. Ultimately, stakeholders get small returns due to which they lack competence and incentive to spend in technological upgradation of the cotton farming. This study addresses the skills gap of the stakeholders involved in marketing chain of cotton, constraints faced by the stakeholders and methods of bridging those gaps by providing better extension strategies. Multistage random sampling technique was used to select the study respondents. The total sample size of the study was four hundred respondents (300 cotton growers, 50 commission agents and 50 ginners). Separate interview schedules were prepared to collect the data from three types of respondents. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). It appeared that most of the cotton growers had skills gap in production practices, assessment of quality characteristics of cotton, control of factors involved in low production and quality, skills regarding value addition options, skills regarding management of marketing costs and skills gap regarding packing material. Commission agents had skills gap in assessment of quality characteristics of cotton, acquiring price information, labor and its costs management, transportation, storage, grading, packaging, control of losses, control of factors affecting price and quality of cotton. Ginners had skills gap in assessing quality characteristics of cotton, getting price information, managing operations involved in ginning process, management of problems, labor management, upgradation of machinery, business competitiveness, quality management, marketing strategies, knowledge of government policies, promotion of institutional linkages, transportation, storage, capacity of losses management, getting extension services, packing and acquisition of technical knowledge