Thanks to rising acreage and expansion of cultivation of hybrid varieties, stakeholders said Bangladesh’s local cotton production is likely to increase this year.
According to the Additional Director of the Cotton Development Board (CDB), Akhteruzzaman, in fiscal 2020-21, overall production is likely to be around 200,000 bales, who further went on to add that during the current season, farmers have sown cotton on nearly 44,450 hectares of land.
Lack of rainfall in the November-December period has brightened the prospects of a good crop, underlined the CDB Additional Director while adding that owing to a recovery in acreage and introduction of hybrid seeds, raw cotton production in the country has been increasing over the past decade.
As per CDB data, in fiscal 2019-20, cotton farmers produced 4 per cent higher crop (year-on-year) to 177,890 bales, compared to the previous year.
As per the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) latest report on the Cotton and Products Update on Bangladesh, an increase in cotton production is forecasted, which further added that cotton was cultivated in 20-22 districts of Bangladesh.
It is only around 0.55 per cent of the total cultivable land of 81 lakh hectares, which is under cotton cultivation, the USDA maintained.
