For the last few years, cotton has been facing many risks from sowing till harvesting. These risks include natural,
environmental, economic and marketing risks that cause severe impact on productivity and profitability of this crop. In
Pakistan’s context, such external and internal risk pose severe implications in terms of the provision of raw material to country’s
textile industry and foreign exchange earnings through textile exports. These in turn cast major threat to farmers’ livelihood
and industrial workers in the country. This study is conducted with the objective to provide an account of various risks faced
by cotton growers, their awareness about these risks, their perceived impacts and relevant strategies for managing these risks
at farm level in Punjab province of Pakistan. For this purpose, data from 480 cotton growers were collected from Punjab
province using multistage random sampling technique. Results reveal that majority of the respondent’s attribute yield reduction
in cotton to various kinds of risks and are adapting to these risks as per their awareness about the risk and knowledge about
potential mitigation and coping options. Frequent changes in agricultural policies are perceived to be the largest risk source in
agriculture. On the other hand, necessity of constructing small dams and/or installation of turbines was deemed to be the top
priority in managing various farm risks. Results also indicate some discrepancies among farmers in terms of their awareness
about various risk sources and resultant coping and mitigation strategies. The study concludes with an emphasis on increasing
farmers’ awareness about potential risks and the need for participatory and community-based mitigation campaigns to ensure
sustainable cotton production.
Muhammad Amjed Iqbal, Qing Ping, Muhammad Usman Zafar, Azhar Abbas, Muhammad Khalid Bashir, Asghar Ali, Rakhshanda Kousar. (2018) FARM RISK SOURCES AND THEIR MITIGATION: A CASE OF COTTON GROWERS IN PUNJAB, , Volume 55, Issue 3.
