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Sustainability in cotton production is inevitable because producing more cotton means more employment, economic acceleration, and industrial expansion. India, China, the United States, Brazil, and Pakistan contribute 74% of worldwide cotton production. Pakistan is contributing only 5%, despite the high potential of cotton. The average yield of cotton in Pakistan is stagnant at 570.99 kg hm−2, whereas it entails the highest cost of production among all other crops. The yield obtained in Pakistan is less than the potential, profitability is drastically lessening, and farmers are abandoning cotton for alternative kharif crops. Some traditional quantitative studies have unveiled different factors that affect cotton production. However, an in-depth qualitative study has never been conducted in Pakistan to explore the root causes of growing cotton crop failure. Following Moustakas's traditional phenomenological guidelines, this phenomenological study was conducted in the district of Rahim Yar Khan in the core cotton zone of Punjab province. A total of 10 interviews were conducted with purposively selected cotton growers based on a criterion: (i) having more than 10 years of cotton growing experience, (ii) being a cotton grower, and (iii) having at least 10 years of formal schooling. Interviews were conducted face to face on an interview guide. One interview lasted 45–50 min, and responses were recorded and analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. A total of 6 themes emerged from the collected data, including (i) climate change, (ii) varietal problems, (iii) pesticide usage, (iv) sense of institutional services, (v) attitude of farmers and (vi) soil health and environment. These six merging themes contributed to cotton crop failure and yield decline. The deep exploration further summarized that researchers, extensionists, and farmers need to seriously consider variety, sowing time, and the environment to revive cotton crops. The detailed recommendations and policy guidelines are presented in this paper, highlighting the cotton sector's research, development and investment areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being a developing country, Pakistan needs sustainable and cost-effective strengthening/ retrofitting solution to be adopted/ practiced in the construction industry. The research reported in this paper was aimed to study the effectiveness of PMM, an indigenous product, for repairing reinforced concrete beams, resulting more effective and cost benefiting repair and strengthening for restoration of pre-cracked RC structures. This article presents the research results of experimental investigation conducted for repairing of cracks in shear deficient reinforced concrete (RC) beams with locally available novel material polymer modified mortar (PMM). A total of 6 beams; divided in three groups i.e. short beams, medium beams and deep beams with varying depths and same mix design were tested to four point loading under monotonic loading conditions until failure loads. Afterwards, these beams were repaired with PMM and cured with water for 72 h for retesting until failure. Load at first crack and at failure, crack pattern and deflections were recorded for all specimens during testing. Results from the experimental investigation indicate that load carrying capacity of the repaired beams was significantly restored in comparison to the control specimens. However, repaired specimens of medium group showed more improvement in load carrying capacity as compared with those of repaired specimens of short and deep group. The specimens of medium group restored up to 90% of their original load carrying capacity. The ductility is improved significantly for all shear critical repaired RC beams up to opening of cracks. Sudden brittle failure was observed after opening of repaired cracks. The contribution of PMM to load carrying capacity was found more significant for medium beams as compared to short and deep beams. The results of this study indicated that application of polymer modified mortar is effective technique for repairing of cracks in shear deficient RC beams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]