The sowing of cotton has started in Sindh and initial estimates of the agriculture department indicate that 30pc of the area had been brought under the crop’s cultivation by last week. Early sowing in the lower Sindh region had started in March and is continuing.

The cultivation in upper Sindh would start later amidst reports that the administration would effectively discourage the cultivation of paddy in the cotton-growing areas.

The lower Sindh region, located on the left bank of the Indus, is known to produce cotton, besides sugarcane and wheat. Farmers from Mirpurkhas, Jhudo, Naukot, Tando Jan Mohammad and Tando Mohammad Khan say the sowing of cotton has almost been completed in their areas. There has been a drop in acreage owing to the low prices received by farmers during the last cotton season.

Many growers have gone for maize, dundi cut red chillies or other vegetables that, they think, would give them better returns. Farmers often tend to switch to other crops in pursuit of better prices.

Zahid Bhurgari, a cotton producer from Mirpurkhas, and Mir Zafarullah Talpur from Tando Jan Mohammad, said they reduced their cotton acreage by opting for red chillies.

“I had cultivated cotton last year on 150 acres; this season I am growing it on 40 acres only,” said Bhurgari. Talpur has sown cotton on 70 acres instead of 100 acres last year.

There has been a drop in acreage owing to the low prices received by farmers during the last cotton season

So far, prices of farm inputs have remained normal, if not on the lower side. Input dealers in lower Sindh claim that the demand for cotton seed has dropped significantly this season despite the availability of urea and DAP fertiliser at fixed rates. But growers are still not buying enough fertiliser as their purchasing power has been hit by the low prices they received from last season’s cotton, paddy, sugarcane and wheat crops.

It is also seen that fixed input prices are mostly offered to only influential farmers, whereas small growers get these inputs at exorbitant rates.

A Jhudo-based input dealer, Zahid Kaimkhani, said he had sold 1,200 bags of cotton seed last year. Now, with 90pc of cotton sowing over in his area, he has just sold 800 bags. He informed that urea is being sold for Rs1,840-1,850 per bag against the fixed price of Rs1,860. DAP fertiliser is available at the fixed price of Rs3,650 but its uptake has dropped due to the affordability factor.

Sindh is likely to retain its cotton-sowing target of 650,000 hectares, which has not been met since 2008-09.

The provincial agriculture department’s figures show that 3.523m bales of cotton were produced in 2013-14 and 3.572m bales in 2014-15. Meanwhile, the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association’s (PCGA) final phutti (seed cotton) report put the output at 3.76m bales and 3.974 million bales for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons respectively. The PCGA says cotton production grew 5.76 pc last season against the last season of 2013-14.

Another factor that has supported the cultivation of cotton this time round has been better water availability, which was by and large satisfactory until last week. Irrigation officials said indented supplies are being ensured for Sindh.

“Four days back, 95,000 cusecs of water was released from Chashma for second 10 dailies of May as per our indented requirement,” said a Sukkur Barrage official who monitors inter-provincial water flows.

Even the Kotri Barrage is getting indented supplies. Against 12,000 cusecs of required flows, 13,000 cusec were available to meet the requirements of the barrage’s four canals. This is quite unusual when compared with the trend over the past several years.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, May 11th , 2015

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