8.0 Although Man-Made Fibres have partially replaced cotton, the total consumption of cotton has, so far, remained at a high level because of population explosion. But Man-Made Fibres are also on the march and pose a real threat to cotton as shown in Table 9.
 

Source: Cotton World Statistics, ICAC, October, 1992. Vol. 46, No.1 (Part 11).

8.1 As a matter of historical interest proportinate use of different fibres at the end of Eighteenth century -are given in Table 10. Brown and Ware (1958).

TABLE 10. FIBRES USED IN THE WORLD

WOOL = 78%

FLAX = 18%

COTTON = 4%

8.2 The input of SNT in the improvement of Man-Made Fibres is very high with the result that Man-Made Fibres are being improved rapidly. This is partially due to the fact that millions of dollars of risk capital is provided by Multi-Nationals for research on Man-MadeFibres. Cotton has not been able to attract risk capital and is totally dependent upon Government expenditure for research in Pakistan. The saving grace for cotton is population growth and per capita consumption.

PAGE 8