The sowing of the Cotton crop in Sindh this kharif has been badly affected on account of acute water shortage.

Data obtained from the Sindh agriculture department shows that only around 45 per cent (269,000 hectares) of the cotton sowing target had been achieved by end May while Sindh was pursuing a cotton cultivation target of 620,000ha.

The decline in acreage is mainly attributed to the acute water shortage that the province has been facing. Water shortages started affecting Sindh around March when storage in both Tarbela and Mangla dams hit dead level. Sowing of kharif crops, mainly cotton, begins in lower Sindh as early as late February or early March.

Water availability during this time is crucial as a considerable area is brought under cotton cultivation in the early sowing period. While this season does witness water shortages, the flows at both the Sukkur and Kotri barrages this year remained highly inadequate for crop sowing.

Fed by the two barrages, the left bank of the Indus River is known for cotton production. Recently however, growers have been liberally sowing rice, a high delta crop, in these areas while considerable acreage has also been loss to water logging owing to unwise sugarcane planting in district Ghotki.

Agriculture officials say that growers with access to sweet groundwater who were able to sow cotton during the early sowing period will fetch the best price this season as it doesn’t look like the desired cotton production will be achievable again

Agriculture officers believe growers may be willing to opt for a late cotton sowing in the ongoing season although doing so is bound to compromise per acre yield. Around 27pc less sowing has been reported in Sindh this year when compared to the 57pc (367,867ha) achieved in the corresponding period last year.

If the present trend continues then growers and officials anticipate that, alarmingly, only 50pc of the total sowing target will be achieved.

Meanwhile a four per cent increase in cotton production has been reported in Sukkur’s Khairpur, Ghotki and Naushahro Feroze districts. Growers there have access to sweet groundwater while both major perennial main left bank canals of the Sukkur barrage, Rohri and Nara, also pass through these areas.

Seed cotton production was recorded at 4.2 million bales in 2017-18, according to the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) data while the Sindh agriculture department has claimed a total production of 3.7m cotton bales.

The difference between figures of cotton bale production can to be understood in the wake of different standards of weight used to measure one bale of cotton. The Sindh agriculture department assesses a bale at 170.09 kilograms, an internationally accepted standard according to the department.

According to PCGA Chairman Haji Mohammad Akram, ginners consider different weights to count their cotton bales. “A bale can be weighed as low as 155kg and as high as 175kg as per law which allows a five per cent upward or downward difference in weight. So, a cotton bale can be of 170kg or 175kg and it can be of 155kg or 160kg as well,” he said. He added that ginners simply count bales.

The agriculture department’s figures indicate Sindh last achieved a record 4.2m cotton bale production in 2009-10. From then onwards it has been unable to achieve either a sowing or production target for a variety of reasons. For last two years the province has set a 4.5m bale production target and 650,000ha sowing target.

Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) vice president Nabi Bux Sathio states that the government needs to pay serious attention to growth in the cotton sector by addressing issues of quality seed, timely availability of water, high quality pesticides, a support price and subsidy on tube-wells.

“A tube well subsidy can greatly help farmers because wherever sweet groundwater is available a cotton grower will definitely sow cotton in anticipation of the support price,” he said and added that profitability is a major problem for which farmers always show concern.

Federal Cotton Commissioner Dr Khalid Abdullah observed that issues ranging from profitability and marketing to encroachment of crops in cotton sowing areas need to be addressed.

He said that since agriculture was now a devolved subject the provinces should take care of these issues on their own. “If the provinces are able to increase per acre productivity, the profitability factor will tilt in favour of growers,” he remarked.

Growers believe the price of cotton this season will remain on the higher side due to a decline in acreage and a subsequent drop in the production of seed cotton. According to Haji Nadeem Shah, a cotton producer, a recent transaction of Rs3,500 per 40kg cotton was conducted in lower Sindh and transported to Punjab following the first picking.

Agriculture officials say that growers with access to sweet groundwater who were able to sow cotton during the early sowing period will fetch the best price this season as it doesn’t look like the desired cotton production will be achievable again.

Districts like Khairpur and Ghotki in upper Sindh are reporting late cotton sowing. Both these districts are located on the Indus’s left bank and fed by the Sukkur barrage. Even Mirpurkhas and Sanghar’s growers will be willing to opt for late sowing if water flows are eventually made available.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, June 4th, 2018

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