More lands to be brought under cotton cultivation

The government has undertaken a massive programme to gradually increase the domestic production of cotton to one million bales by bringing more areas, especially the hilly and tobacco lands, under cotton cultivation by the year 2018.
The Cotton Development Board (CDB) will implement the project in 149 upazilas of 46 districts and once the project is implemented, it would be possible to raise the cotton production to 0.7-1.0 million bales per year.
Currently, the country produces around 0.145 million bales of cotton from 41,498 hectares of land.
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) has recently approved the Tk 1.05 billion project titled 'Extended Cotton Cultivation (Phase-1)' aiming to enhance the overall cotton production of the country.
The government will start implementing the projects initially in 10 districts of Khulna division and gradually expand the projects to other districts and bring about one million hectares of land under cotton cultivation. The districts include Khulna, Jessore, Satkhira, Jhenidah, Magura, Kushtia, Chuadanga, Meherpur and Bagerhat.
The CDB is expecting to replace tobacco cultivation in certain high-quality lands with cotton seeds, since tobacco is neither an essential crop, nor healthy for consumers and the environment. Moreover, Bangladesh is still earning quite less from tobacco as the bulk of the profits through sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products go to production companies abroad which process the crop and market it.
According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), a total of 108,000 hectares of land have been brought under tobacco cultivation this year, some 38,000 hectares more than the last year. Of the total land, 40,000 hectares are in Kushtia, 28,000 hectares in Bandarban, 30,000 hectares in Nilphamari and Lalmonirhat and 10,000 hectares in Rangpur. All the tobacco growing districts under Rangpur division will be brought under the project and will gradually be replaced by cotton farming.
To implement the projects, the CDB plans to raise the use of new high yielding varieties, introduce summer cotton, gradual conversion of 20,000 hectares from tobacco to cotton cultivation, and increase cultivation in the salinity-prone coastal areas in the south. Under normal conditions, domestic cotton production can only meet about 3.0 per cent of the country's current demand for raw cotton.
Under the project, the CDB will arrange land for cotton cultivation from many sources replacing tobacco areas, extending cultivation to char areas, hill valleys, using hill slopes being used for Jhum cultivation, extending cultivation to salinity-prone areas of southern districts, changing cropping pattern and introducing agro-forestry system.
Coastal districts of Barisal, Jhalakathi, Patuakhali, Barguna, Bhola and Pirojpur and the hill districts of Khagrachhari and Bandarban will also be brought under the new planning of CDB. The draught-prone Barind areas under Rajshahi division will also be brought under the four-year plan for integrated cotton cultivation.
"We will bring more unused lands under cotton cultivation as well as expand the cultivation in char lands and draught-prone areas, especially in Barendra region, and salinity-prone coastal areas in the south," said Executive Director of CDB, Dr Farid Uddin.
"Gradually we will bring more tobacco lands under cotton cultivation," he said.
At present the country needs about 4.2 million bales of cotton to meet the annual demand of its textile sector. But the domestic production of cotton can hardly meet 3-5 per cent of the total demand. About 95 per cent of the demand is met by imported cotton.
The country imported cotton worth about US$ 2.0 billion from the international market in the fiscal year (FY) 2012-13. Bangladesh, the third largest importer of cotton, usually procures the item from India, Uzbekistan, the USA, Pakistan, Benin, South Africa and Senegal.
The country produced a record 0.145 million bales of cotton from 41,498 hectares of land in the last FY (2013-14), marking a growth of 12 per cent  against the previous fiscal. In FY 2012-13, the total production was about 129,000 bales from 39,756 hectares of land. The production was, however, only 50,175 bales from 32,600 hectares of land, just five years ago.
Experts at the DAE said less fertile as well as char lands where other crops do not grow well can be used for cotton cultivation. Out of 0.25 million hectares of land suitable for cotton cultivation, 0.15 million hectares could have been brought under hybrid cotton primarily by the year 2021 easily to produce  0.8-1.0 million bales of fibre (about 20 per cent of the requirement), they said.
The CDB plans to bring about 20,000 hectares of land under cotton cultivation from a total of 70,000 hectares of tobacco lands, 20,000 hectares from 40,000 hectares of char lands. The CDB has already started cultivating American upland cotton in the hill valleys. Besides, of the 40-50 thousand hectares of hill slopes, the CDB will earmark about 20,000 hectares for cotton cultivation.
According to sources, the cotton production could not reach its peak due to high production cost, low market price and low yielding capacity resulting in lower profit to the farmers. But in recent years, there has been a remarkable increase in cotton production in the country due to introduction of hybrid seeds and modern technologies.
CDB is the country's sole public sector agency responsible for motivating farmers to grow cotton, upgrade technology through research, disseminate technology to the farmers through extension services and ensure production and supply of quality seeds. But the institutional capacity of CDB, according to experts, is very weak. To achieve the goal they also feel the urgency for strengthening the capacity of the board.