KARACHI, April 21: The government has set a cotton production target of 10.55 million bales for the 2003/04 (July/June) fiscal year, an increase of 450,000 bales against the current year’s output, agriculture officials said on Monday.

One official said the production target for the next season was higher than the 2002/03 season’s output because of hopes of better water availability during the sowing period.

“In fact, we are hopeful that the production next year would also exceed our target,” he said.

Cotton output in Pakistan, which is the world’s fourth largest producer, has reached 10.10 million bales in the current 2002/03 year against a target of 10.07 million bales due to an improved crop yield.

Another official of the Food and Agriculture Ministry, who declined to be identified, told Reuters next season’s area under cotton was set at 2.86 million hectares (7.07 million acres) from 2.72 million during the current year.

The ministry expects domestic consumption this fiscal year of 11.5 million bales. Pakistan has already imported more than 800,000 bales of high-grade cotton to meet the growing demand in local textile mills.

The official said one of the major reasons for the higher crop target next year was that many farmers in drought-hit areas had switched to a less water intensive cotton crop.

Water shortages hit the cotton crop in the southern Sindh province during the current season, but better crop yields in central Punjab province, the main cotton producing belt, had improved overall output.

Pakistan’s cotton output has been between 8 million and 10.7 million bales over the past 10 years, with an average of 9.3 million bales.

Pakistan exported only 200,000 bales of raw high quality cotton during 2002/03, mainly to Southeast Asian countries.

Pakistan has faced irrigation water shortages over the last four years because of poor rains. Agriculture contributes nearly a quarter of Pakistan’s gross domestic product.

But winter rains in February, the heaviest in Pakistan for 30 years, boosted the prospects for the agriculture sector.

However, the government has estimated there would still be a 20-25 per cent shortage of irrigation water for the next cotton crop.—Reuters