International Journal of Sciences: Basic and Applied Research (IJSBAR) ISSN 2307-4531 http://gssrr.org/index.php?journal=JournalOfBasicAndApplied Factors Influencing Sustainable Production of Cotton in Pakistan: A Case Study From Bahawalpur District Abid Hussain Nadeem a , Juiping Xu b * , Muhammad Nazim c , Muhammad Hashim d Uncertainty Decision-Making Laboratory, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, P. R. China a e-mail:abidnadeem.iub@gmail.com b e-mail:xujiuping@scu.edu.cn c e-mail: nazimscu@gmail.com d e-mail: hashimscu@gmail.com Abstract Pakistan is one of the most important cotton producing and consuming country in the World. But there is instability in cotton production in Pakistan. The present study purpose is to explore the important factors affecting cotton production in Pakistan. A sample of 50 small farmers, 30 medium and 20 large farmers was randomly selected from different villages of Punjab province. Some production function was employed to assess the effects of education, land fertilization, weather, land preparation, seed, irrigation, etc on the productivity of cotton. The results revealed that the coefficients for cultivation (0.115) and seed (0.105) were found statistically significant at 1 percent level. The Cost-Benefit Ratio for the large farmers was found higher (1.35) than that of small (1.28) and medium (1.33) farmers. So, there is a huge need to educate the farmers on priority basis to adopt the recommended practices and to ensure the availability of these inputs. The extension staff can play a highly positive role in this regard. At the end, a detailed discussion is proposed to show the efficiency of the proposed model. Keywords: Factors affecting cotton yield; Cost of production and cost benefit ratio; Marginal Value Product; Economic Efficiency; 1. Introduction The purpose of this paper is to explore prospects and mechanisms for a transition to sustainable development of agriculture sector in Pakistan. The particular case examined here is cotton and cotton products, which together establish the largest economic sector in Pakistan, with appreciable trade exposure at every stage of production. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Corresponding author. Tel:+86-028-85418191, Fax: +86-28-85415143. E-mail address: xujiuping@scu.edu.cn 193