Bangladesh Cotton Output Meets Only 4% Of Textile Mills Need
Cotton production in Bangladesh has remained stagnant over the years due to a lack of sufficient farmland, manpower and government support, particularly in terms of innovation and investment.
Cotton production in Bangladesh currently meets just 4 percent of the 85 lakh bales required by the country’s 450 spinning mills annually.
Bangladesh imported cotton worth about $4.642 billion in fiscal 2021-22 while the country’s garments exports fetched $42.60 crore in the same fiscal.
As such, the country is still heavily reliant on imported cotton for its garment industry despite being the world’s second-largest supplier of apparels after China.
Officials of the Cotton Development Board (CDB) blame the absence of adequate research, manpower, land, and funds for the slow growth in domestic cotton production.
According to the latest report of the CDB, cotton cultivation increased by an average of just 1 percent annually in the seven years to fiscal 2022-23, when total acreage stood at 45,000 hectares.
The CDB spent around Taka 160 crore to foster local cotton cultivation between fiscal 2016-17 and 2022-23, but only managed to expand production by 3 to 4 percent.
“The CDB has developed only nine high-yielding varieties of cotton since its founding in 1972, resulting in a marginal rise in the country’s cotton production,” Daily Star reported.
The CDB spent Taka 30.58 crore on research in the four years between fiscal 2019-20 and 2022-23, but the outcome was a modest 9 percent rise in domestic cotton production.
AH Md Kaikobad, a researcher at the CDB centre in Dinajpur, said apart from addressing the manpower crisis, policy support is needed to promote production.
“The government’s main focus is on other cash crops. So, integrating cotton with cash crops could improve yields,” he added.
Muhammad Ayub, former President of the Bangladesh Cotton Association, said bringing unused sugarcane and tobacco farmland under cotton cultivation could increase production by 10-12 percent.
Mohammad Ali Khokon, President of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) said the agriculture ministry is much more focused on cultivating food crops while cotton is not given enough attention.
