The government plans to produce about 0.5 million bales of cotton by the next 4 years with a view to reducing import of cotton, the basic raw material for the textile sector, officials said.
The Cotton Development Board (CDB) recently undertook a programme to gradually increase the domestic production of cotton to 0.5 million bales by the fiscal year (FY) 2017-18 by introducing high yielding varieties and bringing more lands under cotton cultivation.
The CDB has already submitted a 4-year project (July 2014-2018) -- Extended Cotton Cultivation Project (Phase 1) -- worth about Tk 1.2 billion to achieve the target. The project is now waiting for The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) approval. Under this programme, the CDB plans to expand use of new high yielding varieties and bring more areas under cotton cultivation.
"We want to bring more tobacco areas 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 Dr Farid Uddin, additional director of CDB.
Mr Farid said, the country has 8.52 million hectares of cultivable land, of which 250,000 hectare of land are suitable for cotton cultivation and can be brought under cotton cultivation without competing with other staple crops such as rice and grains. "If we can bring 150,000 hectares of land under cotton cultivation we can produce as much as 700,000 bales of cotton and can meet at least 20 per cent of the country's total demands," 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 $ 2.0 billion from the international market in the fiscal 2012-13. Bangladesh, the third largest importer of cotton, usually procures the item from India, Uzbekistan, USA, Pakistan, Benin, South Africa and Senegal.
The country produced a record of 0.145 million bales of cotton from 41,498 hectares of land in the just concluded fiscal (2013-14), marking a growth of 12 per cent as against the previous year. In fiscal 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.
Under the project, the CDB will arrange land for cotton cultivation from many sources replacing tobacco area, 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.
Experts at the department of agriculture extension said that comparatively 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 suitable land for cotton cultivation, 0.15 million hectares of land 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.
According to sources, the CDB plans to bring about 20,000 hectares of land under cotton cultivation from a total 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, and from the valleys some 5,000 hectares would have been brought under cotton cultivation. 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 results in lower benefit 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 highlighted the urgency for strengthening the capacity of the board.
Govt looks to near quadruple cotton output by FY \\\'18
Ziaur Rahman | Published: July 12, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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