Cotton to be sown on 1m acre land in 2011-12 season

KARACHI: Cotton crop will be sown on around one million acres of land in the country in the coming crop season 2011-12, commencing in May-June 2011.
“Due to growing demand, higher domestic prices and better returns to growers, around 20 percent more land will be acquired for lint cultivation,” senior member Pakistan Cotton Ginners association (PCGA) and member Sindh Assembly Rana Abdul Sattar said Tuesday.
He said there was an expectation of a bumper crop in Pakistan, it is expected that country might touch the level of 15 million bales in 2011-12 crop season.
He said more than 95 percent BT cotton variety would be sown in Sindh and Punjab, which would give better production and it would also help resist virus to a greater extent.
Rana said timely spray of pesticides and water would save the crop from virus attacks and “it is the responsibility of agriculture field officials to educate growers about remedial measures in case of any virus attack on the crop.”
Talking to Daily Times, former Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture, Nazar Muhammad Gondal said the land in Balochistan was very suitable for cotton production and its 19 districts were identified for this purpose.
“It is encouraging that Balochistan is being considered for growing more cotton which would increase the income of the growers and also help to alleviate poverty in the province”.
“More than 50,000 acre of land in Balochistan province would be put under cotton crop cultivation during the next sowing season,” he maintained.
“The better result in lint production can be attributed to sowing of BT cotton seed and favourable weather condition in the province”, he added.
Cotton analyst Shakeel Ahmad said the increase in cotton prices in the country hit the historic level in February 2011, when it crossed Rs 14,500 per maund.
The spot rate of KCA was declared settled at Rs 3,200 on the January 1, 2009 and on December 31, last trading day of 2009, it was Rs 4,550 per maund, he added. On December 31, it was Rs 9,600 per maund.
In international market the lint price was 58.11 cents per pound on December 31, 2009 and on December 2010 the price was quoted 141 cents per pound, he added.
The Cotlook A Index was at 57.40 cents per pound on January 2, 2009 on December 31, 2010 it was quoted 78.45 cents per pound in UK.
A massive increase in lint prices has encouraged growers to get benefit out of the situation, he maintained.
The less lint cultivation area during 2010-11 season can be attributed to the encouragement and economic incentives to sugarcane growers by the government, he added.
Ahmad said economic incentives to sugarcane growers were not bad but the government should avoid allowing the sugarcane growers to occupy lint production land for better incentives.
Ahmad said the cotton prices in Pakistan were still 15 percent lower in comparison to the international market.
He said government should also take interest to restart seed institute at Sakrand in Sindh to fulfill seed requirements of growers as the only seed institute in Khanewal was unable to cover even Punjab’s requirement.
Agricultural Research Council scientists should start trial production of Chinese seed to assess the BT genes behavior in Pakistan’s soil conditions and climate.
“The country achieved highest ever production in cotton in 2005 when production stood at 14.3 million cotton bales while Sindh share was at 3.6 million cotton bales,” he maintained.
The country received a total production of 11.62 million bales till March 31, 2011 despite the fact that during this outgoing crop season, cotton was cultivated on about 660,000 acres of land, less than 140,000 acres of land compared to last year’s cultivation area.
He said the textile and yarn sector’s consumption for 2011 would be expected to stay around 15.4 million bales and a possible shortfall to 1.2 million bales would be met by making imports from USA, Brazil, CIS countries and Sudan etc.