Project Details.

Better Cotton is the world’s largest cotton sustainability programme, supporting more than 2.9 million farmers across 26 countries through training on sustainable agricultural practices. In Pakistan, Better Cotton funded two partner-led projects—SWRDO in Punjab and CABI in Sindh—implemented from April 2022 to March 2025 to improve sustainable farming, input use, climate resilience, and gender-responsive decision-making among cotton-growing households. 

A baseline was conducted in 2022 to assess prevailing practices and household dynamics. The endline evaluation aimed to measure changes in adoption of promoted practices, gender-related decision-making, enabling and hindering factors influencing cotton cultivation, and overall effectiveness of programme delivery. The evaluation uses mixed quantitative and qualitative methods, including farmer practice surveys, gender decision-making modules, FGDs, KIIs, and partner consultations. 

HIMAT Consulting led the Pakistan-based implementation of the Better Cotton Endline Evaluation. Key services included: reviewing and finalizing quantitative and qualitative tools with the India Evaluation Lead; refining the sampling approach for farmer surveys, women’s decision-making surveys, FGDs, and KIIs across Punjab and Sindh; recruiting and training data collection teams; and conducting large-scale field data collection involving 1,200 farmer surveys and 300 gender-focused surveys. 

HIMAT facilitated FGDs with farmers (men and women), held KIIs with stakeholders across the cotton ecosystem, and coordinated qualitative data collection in alignment with Better Cotton’s oversight. The team ensured rigorous quality assurance, field supervision, and accuracy checks throughout data collection. 

HIMAT conducted two in-person visits to partner organizations to assess implementation processes and challenges, compiled contextual information on market, environmental, and social conditions affecting cotton production, and prepared transcripts, notes, and raw datasets for submission to the India evaluation team. HIMAT also provided ongoing clarification and support during data validation and analysis.