‘Bangladesh can never be self-sufficient in cotton, but plans have been devised to increase production’

The country's RMG export earnings stood at $46.99 billion in the 2022-2023 fiscal year. At the same time, Bangladesh has to import huge amounts of raw materials to make readymade garment products. The most RMG sector has to spend on importing raw materials is cotton. 

In the same fiscal year, Bangladesh spent $8.67 billion on importing cotton, 12.7% of its total foreign currency spent for imports. This makes cotton the second biggest import item after fuel, which accounted for 18.8% of foreign currency spent on imports.

Bangladesh set up the Cotton Development Board in 1972 to meet the country's demand to run the textiles at a time when Pakistan abruptly banned exports of cotton to Bangladesh soon after the Liberation War. Before the birth of Bangladesh, the textile mills in East Pakistan depended on cotton from West Pakistan.

The contribution of domestically produced cotton is negligible. Cotton Development Board officials said that the annual demand for cotton in Bangladesh is around 85 lakh bales while Bangladesh can produce only 2 lakh bales of cotton. 

However, Bangladesh has set goals and outlined action plans to increase cotton production by nearly one-fifth by 2041. 

The Business Standard spoke to Fakhre Alam Ibne Tabib, executive director of the Cotton Development Board to delve into the current situation, setbacks and plans to reduce cotton imports to save foreign currency.     

What is the situation of cotton cultivation in the country? 

In fiscal year 2022-23, we have been able to produce 2 lakh bales of cotton on 45,000 hectares of land against an annual demand of 85 lakh bales.

Out of all four types of cotton produced worldwide, Bangladesh cultivates two types of cotton. One is the Gossypium hirsutum or Upland cotton or American cotton and another is Gossypium arboreum or the tree cotton. Of them, 90% of cotton cultivated in the country is American cotton. The remaining 10% of cotton is cultivated in the hilly areas of the country. 

American cotton, a native to Central America and Mexico, makes up about 90% of the world's cotton production. 

On the other hand, tree cotton is a species of cotton which is native in Asia and produced mainly in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh —  [cultivation starting at a time] even before the production of Muslin. 

The history of the Gossypium arboreum goes back to before the arrival of the Mughals in the region. It has been found in history that in around the 1860s, the peasants gave the tax to the kings as cotton. The hilly area of the country is still called Carpus Mahal. Cotton is a historical crop in Bangladesh. 

During the Mughal era, Muslin was considered a soft fabric around the world. The cotton this fabric came from was also produced in Dhaka and neighbouring areas – mainly on both sides of the Shitalakshya River. The name of the cotton trees was Footy Corpus. It is a variety of the Gossypium arboreum. The artisans also lived in the area and weaved Muslin.

There were many textile mills in East Pakistan during the Pakistan period. The cotton for these textile mills used to come from West Pakistan. However, after the War of Independence in 1971 and the birth of Bangladesh, Pakistan stopped exporting cotton to Bangladesh.

As a result, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman set up the Cotton Development Broad in 1972 to increase the production of cotton in Bangladesh. Over the years, the readymade garment sector in Bangladesh has seen fast and massive growth. 

Currently, a total of 524 spinning mills are operating in the country and the annual demand for cotton for the spinning mills is 85 lakh bales. Of them, Bangladesh produced only 2 lakh bales of cotton. 

What is the major setback we face in cultivating cotton in the country? 

The main problem is that the amount of land is comparatively low to the population size of the country. We have only 80 lakh hectares of arable land in the country. Moreover, the amount of arable land is decreasing every year for various purposes. Naturally, we have to put more emphasis on food production. 

As a result, although cotton is also a very important crop, and as it is an import-dependent crop, the government has taken different initiatives to increase its cultivation. 

Cotton plants are called Xerophytic plants because they need very little amount of water. Cotton is generally cultivated in the desert areas around the world, in India, Egypt and other places. 

We are trying to cultivate cotton in the areas where other crops do not grow well. For example, the Char areas, Barind area in North Bengal and the hilly areas where the irrigation is insufficient. 

We have taken the initiative to expand cotton cultivation in the unutilised lands in the country. Our main target is not to hamper the food crops in any way. 

The problem of cotton cultivation is one and that is cotton is a long-duration crop. It takes around six months for the cultivation of cotton. Now the demand for local cotton has risen because we are trying to save foreign currency.

What is the future of cotton cultivation in the country? Is there any chance of being self-sufficient in cotton production while neighbouring India is the second-largest cotton producer? 

We have calculated and found that in Bangladesh, cotton can be cultivated on 2 lakh hectares of land out of the 80 lakh hectares of land without hampering the food crops. We will have to increase the cotton production in phases. If we can bring these 2 lakh hectares of land under cotton cultivation, we will be able to produce 20% of the existing demand. 

But we do not have the capacity to be self-sufficient in cotton. India has a vast area for cultivating cotton and the drought-affected areas in India are being used for this crop.

We have outlined an action plan aligning with the government's plans like Vision 2030, Perspective Plan 2041 and Delta Plan. By 2030, we will be able to produce more than 5 lakh bales of cotton, which will be more than double what we are producing now. By 2041, we have planned to produce 20% of the existing annual demand. By then, we will have the capacity to produce 20 lakh bales of cotton.

We have also calculated that we need around 16 lakh bales of cotton for our domestic demand for clothing. If we can meet the domestic demand, it will also be a success. This demand is also met with the imported cotton.

The cotton plant is such a plant that nothing remains unused. We mainly produce cotton for fibres. Yarn will be made from the fibre. Fabric will be made from the yarn.

Out of a 100-kilogram seed cotton, 40% is fibre. The remaining 60% is seed. We can produce edible oil from the cotton seeds. Many countries around the world use cotton seeds for edible oil including neighbouring India.     

Out of 100 kilograms of seeds, we can make 18 kilograms of edible oil. The remaining 80 kilograms will be for oil cake. Oil cake is a high-protein feed for fish and livestock.

Where do the seeds come from? What varieties has the Cotton Development Board developed so far? 

There are some companies which import cotton seeds from China and many individual farmers buy and cultivate the cotton. 

There are a total of five research farms across the country. Till today, we have developed a total of 20 varieties of upland cotton. We have developed three varieties of seeds for hilly areas and one hybrid variety. We develop the seeds and distribute them among farmers for cultivation.     

The seeding of the upland cotton is in July and harvesting begins in January. The ginners buy the cotton with seed and there are a total of 18 ginning factories in the country. The ginning factories separate cotton from seeds. The ginners later supply the cotton to the spinners. There is only one oil refinery in Bangladesh which is situated in Kushtia, where oil is made from cotton seeds.

Fakhre Alam Ibne. Sketch: TBS

In 2023, we released two Bt cotton varieties after the approval of the National Committee on Biosafety. They have approved us to cultivate on a limited scale. Farmers are cultivating these new varieties on a trial basis at 168 places across the country. 

The most important is that the farmers will not have to spray pesticides to fend off the attack from bollworm insects on cotton. As a result, total production cost for farmers will come down by 15 to 20%. It is a big benefit farmers will get. 

The country's coastal area is suffering from saline intrusion. We are planning to bring the coastal area under cotton cultivation. We are trying to develop a short-duration variety of cotton plants. We are researching to develop a variety for the coastal area.