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Cotton is one of Pakistan’s most important crops, yet by the mid-1990s, the prevalence of the cotton leaf curl virus (CLCuV) had limited production. Because USDA lists CLCuV as a top threat to U.S. cotton production, the Cotton Productivity Enhancement Project (CPEP) benefits both the U.S. and Pakistan. Plus, U.S. cotton growers export long-staple cotton to Pakistan and other countries, where it is blended with local varieties for textile production.

CPEP was developed in 2010 as a U.S. and Pakistani Government response to this threat. USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service and Agricultural Research Service, along with USAID, the National Agricultural Research Center, and the Pakistan Agricultural Research Center, and ICARDA have worked closely with Pakistani farmers and industry to combat the virus, build a stronger U.S.-Pakistani relationship, and increase our trade.

Learn how CPEP first developed a laboratory diagnostic test to identify the virus and track its spread. Then as the project evolved, USDA added farmer field schools to teach smallholder cotton farmers, especially women and children, methods to mitigate the effects of the virus as well best agricultural management practices to improve their productivity and help them work safely. Now Pakistani farmers are using these methods and Pakistani breeders have just received government approval for commercialization of virus resistant cotton seed for the farmers. The CPEP cooperation with Pakistani scientists is now saving the United States at least five years of research and development as U.S. breeders develop their own disease resistant varieties. For this reason, companies, such as Bayer Crop Science and BASF, as well as farmer supported organizations including the National Cotton Council and Cotton Incorporated, have also supported this project.