Bangladesh targets to increase cotton production five folds by 2030, Since Bangladesh was the second-largest user of the industrial crop, the nation set a goal to raise cotton production by five times by 2030 by introducing new kinds and increasing growing areas. Cotton Development Board’s (CDB) extra director Dr. Md Fakhre Alam Ibne Tabib said that cotton has the potential to be a significant cash crop because we must import it on an annual basis for US$3 billion to meet the growing demand in the textile industry. According to official figures, the nation now produces less than 0.2 million cotton bales (1 bale equals around 480 pounds) annually compared to the 8.5 million bales needed annually.
Bangladesh targets to increase cotton production five folds by 2030
Due to the high demand, Bangladeshi textile and spinning mills as well as other consumers import cotton from Pakistan, Australia, India, the United States, several African and Central Asian countries, and Australia. According to Tabib, the goal was to increase domestic cotton production to 1 million bales using newly developed high yielding and hybrid varieties, as well as some plain districts and the vast, low-fertile barren lands in the country’s southeastern hill region.
While sections of Bandarban and Rangamati are hill areas where the nation currently produces cotton, Western Jhenaidah and Jashore are plain districts. The cotton board currently conducts 27 on-farm trials in 13 zones that include Khagrachari, greater Jashore, greater Kushtia, Rajshahi, Bogura, Rangpur, and Thakurgaon as part of its programs.
According to CDB representatives, a project dubbed Enhancing Capability in Cotton Varieties Development is now testing the germplasm of 12 high yielding Turkish cotton varieties at research farms. Tabib stated, “We are increasing (cotton) cultivation coverage on low-fertile regions of the Barind land (greater Rajshahi), drought- and saline-prone areas, shoals, and hilly areas, keeping in mind the initiative does not affect the main crops.”
He claimed that, as part of a series of research projects in five cotton research centers across the nation, CDB scientists last year created a new cotton variety known as “CDB Cotton 19” and two cultivation techniques. According to Talib, “Our research simultaneously improved the cotton varieties and qualities.”
Cotton is primarily planted in the months of July and August and harvested between December and January; at present, 45,000 hectares are under cultivation, compared to 31,500 hectares in 2009–2010. Since it was less than 100,000 bales in 2009–2010, the production volume has nearly doubled over the last ten years. When high yielding and hybrid cultivars were introduced, raw or seed cotton production increased from roughly 2,000 kg per hectare in 2009–10 to 4,000 kg per hectare now In order to boost cotton output, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman created the Cotton Development Board (CPD) in 1972. Research, seed production, distribution, and marketing, as well as expanding cotton cultivation and providing loans to farmers, are all tasks assigned to the CPD.
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