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Model
Farming / Cotton
Growing cotton under water
constraint
Cotton is the most important fibre crop of Pakistan as it
provides raw material for our textile industry. It earns the
highest export revenue while minimising our dependence on the
imported edible oils through cotton-seeds.
Approximately, 70 per cent of its growing takes place in
Punjab, while the rest of the area is mostly in Sindh.
Given the difference between the yields outside and those
obtained in Pakistan and the gaps within Pakistan itself, it
is necessary that this crop should receive a special
treatment- right from cultivation to its transformation into
value-added fabrics.
The Sindh agriculture department has prepared an 'Action Plan,
2000' for doubling the cotton production in the province. as
compared to the yield in 1999, by the year 2002. The plan
prepared under the Sindh Cotton Development Project (SCDP) is
primarily based on rice substitution.
The basic reasons underlying the plan are:
(a) less irrigation water required for cotton production than
rice cultivation,- about 67 inch per acre for rice as against
28 inches per acre for cotton;
(b) pest attack due to shortage and late availability of
water;
(c) non-profitability of rice export due to falling price due
to IRRI rice in the global market and,
(d) non-profitability of mono-crop culture.
The plan was prepared after a field survey in three rice-
producing districts situated on the right bank of the river
Indus where rice was grown on 4,59,921 hectares, while the
plan envisages, growing cotton in these same three districts
on 18,000 hectares during the year 2002.
During the 1999, rice was grown on 49.039 hectares in the nine
districts on the left bank of the river Indus and now there is
a plan to cultivate cotton in these districts only on 68,151
hectares.
The plan also envisages growing cotton on 7,32,700 hectares in
2002 in 16 districts of the province (excluding Karachi) which
would yield about 40,00,673 bales,- 45.48 per cent compared to
that in 1999.
In order to implement the plan successfully, The SCDP Sindh
Cotton Development Project (SCDP) has given a number of
suggestions to the federal and provincial governments, such
as;
(a) growing cotton on bigger plots of 100-150 acres rather
than on smaller ones because of the fear of salinity;
(b) releasing water w.e.f.15 May each year in Sindh Canal,
Kirthar Canal and Rice Canal;
(c) establishing a ginning factory in Lukki (Shikarpur);
(d) implementing the restrictions on the rice cultivation ,
particularly in the neighourhood of of Shikarpur and Dadu
cities;
(e) setting up at least one TCP cotton-purchasing centre at
Shikarpur;
(f) purchasing the cotton produced in the left bank of the
Indus river area at a premium price;
(g) constructing tubewells at concessional rates in the areas
capable of producing more cotton, and
(h) cultivating the 'Nayab' variety in the right bank areas of
the River Indus.
Courtesy Daily Dawn, 10
December 2001 |
