Cotton production target revised downward

The Cotton Crop Assessment Committee (CCAC) has revised downward cotton production target by around 25 percent, i.e. to 10.847 million bales against the initial target of 14.37 million bales set for the current season 2018-19, after missing the sowing target by over 8 percent.
Official sources told Business Recorder that a meeting of the CCAC met with secretary National Food Security and Research. The meeting was also attended by representatives of textile industry, provincial governments, Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP), cotton growers, All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) and Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA).
The official sources said that the country has missed cotton sowing target by over 8 percent due to extraordinary shortage of water. Cotton was sown on 2.684 million hectares against the target of 2.95 million acres. Sources said that due to increased sugarcane cultivation in cotton areas, delay in harvest of wheat and shortage of water, decline in cotton sowing was registered.
The government had fixed the cotton area and production target for the year 2018-19 according to which Punjab was expected to cover 2.31 million hectares and produce 10 million cotton bales, Sindh had to cover 0.62 million hectares and produce 4.2 million cotton bales, Balochistan had to cover 0.03 million hectares and produce 0.15 million bales and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been targeted to sow cotton on 0.005 million acres and produce 0.02 million bales of cotton.
According to the official figures, cotton has been sown on 2.665 million hectares of land in the current season across the country against 2.665 million hectares during the same period of the last year.
The sources said that decline in cotton sowing was recorded in Sindh which is the second major cotton producing province. Sindh has covered 0.394 million hectares in the current season against the target of 0.62 million hectares and missed the target by around 35 percent. Sindh province produces around 32 mounds seed cotton per acre compared to 21 mounds in Punjab, but due to water shortage, Sindh has missed sowing target.
The target for cotton seed sowing for 2018-19 in Punjab was 2.31 million hectares and the sowing was done on an area of 2.29 million hectares. The overall sowing area in Pakistan was told to be 2.684 million hectares against the target of 2.95 million hectares.
Extraordinary shortage of water during the Kharif season has badly affected the cotton sowing in early season. However, in Punjab, 99% of sowing target was achieved, whereas in Sindh, only 64% of the target area could be sown.
According to the revised estimates Punjab is projected to produce 8.077 million bales, Sindh 2.6 million bales, Balochistan 0.150 million bales and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is projected to produce 0.020 million bales. Officials said that sugarcane crop has overtaken the cotton rich areas of the province including Rahim Yar Khan, Rajanpur, Muzaffargarh and Lodhran, which is another reason for decline in cotton areas.