Revised cotton production target missed

Pakistan has missed the revised cotton production target by around eight percent as the production has been recorded at 11.5 million bales against the revised target of 12.6 million bales for 2017-18. Documents available with Business Recorder revealed that 11.48 million bales of cotton have been recorded so far and the number may reach 11.5 million bales by end-March (closing time); however, the number surpassed the cotton production of 10.6 million bales recorded during the same period of the last year (2016-17).
The country missed cotton production target by around 30 percent in 2015-16 and 25 percent in 2016-17. The Cotton Crop Assessment Committee (CCAC) had in its first meeting downward revised cotton production estimates by over 12 percent to 12.6 million bales against the initial estimate of 14.04 million bales for the current season (2017-18), after missing the sowing target.
Cotton Commissioner Dr Khalid Abdullah confirmed to Business Recorder that cotton target will be missed by around 7-8 percent and production would be around 11.5 million bales in 2017-18, but has surpassed the last year production of 10.6 million bales.
Cotton crop area target for the year 2017-18 was set at 3.11 million hectares (7.68 million acres) with production of 14.04 million bales. About 13.9 percent higher cotton sowing of 2.753 million hectares (6.803 million acres) was achieved during the outgoing season with major increase in the Punjab province (5.3 million acres) compared to last year 2016-17.
But the target set for the current season was missed as decline in the cotton sowing was recorded in Punjab which is the major cotton producing province. Punjab which produces about 70 percent of the total cotton has been hit hard as 5.3 million acres were covered against the target of 5.97 million acres. It is 88 percent of the target for current season but is higher as compared to 4.48 million acres during the previous season.
Punjab has produced 7.23 million bales against the estimated target of 8.8 million bales of cotton, Sindh produced 4.25 million bales of cotton against the production target of 3.7 million bales and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan have produced 0.10 million bales of cotton.