Cotton output expected to surpass 12mln bales this year

LAHORE: Pakistan is expected to have more than 12 million bales of cotton output this year as an improved water availability through irrigation boosted planting of the silver fibre across the country, officials said on Monday.

The officials, privy to the preliminary estimates, said cotton has been sown over an area of 2.12 million hectares till May 25 against the target of 2.78 million hectares, indicating that more than 76 percent of the targeted area has been brought under its cultivation.

The officials hoped that most of the target would be achieved by the end of the May, which is within the optimum period, thanks to the availability of canal water for irrigation at the right time.

It is a healthy sign that a major chunk of cotton has been sown on time, which is largely made possible on the back of better water management by Indus River System Authority and irrigation departments of the provinces.

The major beneficiary of smooth water supplies has been the province of Sindh that was otherwise starved of water last year due to low river flows. Against the target of 0.64 million hectares, cotton sowing has been completed on 0.39 million hectares in Sindh – the highest yielding province in the country.

Sindh cotton was badly hit last year owing to water scarcity and only 0.26 million hectares of area could be planted till May 25 last year. However, this year, cotton has been cultivated over 47.4 percent more area if compared with the progress achieved till the corresponding period of the last year. As Eid holidays are around the corner, it is expected that farmers would mostly complete the remaining sowing and only little targeted area would be left for sowing by mid June. Farmers have been advised to complete sowing before May 31 to harvest good yields. Otherwise, pest attack tends to increase in the moist season of monsoon.

Farmers of south Punjab have faced some hardship this year due to several spells of rains during the sowing season, prompting some of them to replant cotton seeds due to hardening of soil surface. The hardening of soil surface crust due to rain following sowing makes it difficult for the farmers to re-sow the plants.

The rain and late harvesting of maize this year also led to early infestation of pink bollworm on cotton crop, which is not a good sign. The attack, if not controlled, is feared to snowball into a bigger onslaught in the later stage of the crop, cutting yield significantly. As the moist weather invites pests already present on the corn fields, the threat to standing cotton plant multiplies with the wetness providing a favourable growing conditions to them.

Officials, however, said the chances of pink bollworm attack on cotton crop this year are slim due to better off-season management. Sowing of cotton crop before April, the officials said, provided early feed to the pink bollworm, which is the most threatening pest for cotton and early crops became hatcheries for them.