Problems related to cotton production in Bangladesh

Bangladesh prevail favorable weather for cotton production. Though 2.42 lakh hectares of land are suitable for cotton cultivation in Bangladesh 1 lakh hectares of land are available for cotton cultivation but cotton production are not increasing considerably due to many constraints related to research, marketing & management. The following are the major problems of cotton production in Bangladesh.

Scarcity of Land: The lands suitable for growing cotton have been declining due to urbanization, industrialization, housing and other purposes. Also farmers are intended to grow three or more crops from the same land in a year. But due to long duration cotton can't fixed in the existing cropping pattern.

Competition with other high value crop: Cotton is highly competitive with other high value crops like- vegetables, spices, flowers, banana & other fruits. Farmers are migrated from cotton to these high value crops.

Lack of short duration, high yielding & pest tolerant varieties: CDB released 10 varieties for American Upland Cotton & 2 varieties for Hill Cotton. Out of these varieties, the farmers in Bangladesh cultivate only five varieties. Only CB-5 & CB-9 are hairy varieties which are slightly tolerant to sucking pests like jassids. None of the existing varieties are resistant to bollworm. Duration of all the varieties are about 6-7 months & law yield capacity compared with other countries.

Low market price: International market price is influenced domestic cotton price. In the recent past years price of cotton in the international market became unstable & price is downward that affects the domestic market. So, farmers sifted from cotton to other high value crops.

High input cost: High input cost, particularly fertilizer and pesticides. This is because of the heavy reliance on pesticides for cotton pest management.

Insect pests and Diseases of cotton: The major insect pests of cotton in Bangladesh include the chewing insect namely American bollworm & Spotted bollworm and the sucking insects namely the Jassids, Aphids & Whitefly. Farmers have to given more attention to the management of these pests & spent about 40% of the total production cost.

Weakness in cotton research: Adequate infrastructure & human resource facilities for cotton research is very limited within the Cotton Development Board. Most of the Scientist working under Cotton Development Board are junior in service and don't have much experience in research. Linkage between other Research Organizations is very low & inadequate facilities for human resource develoment.

Future Strategies              

Cotton remains the chief raw material for textile industry. The demand for cotton textile products is increasing every day due to increasing global population. To meet the challenges ahead, viable strategies are need to be designed. These can be classified under the following heads.

(a) Net productivity increase 

(b) Quality improvement  

(c) Resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses

(d) Utilization of genetic engineering procedures

(e) Others       

(a) Net productivity increase : The productivity increase sought may be in terms of seed cotton yield or lint yield. Manipulation of boll number, boll weight and sympodial branches provide opportunities of increasing produc­tivity. In cotton, source is not a problem but sink is a constraint. Genetic variability for boll retention has to be exploited along with balance between boll number and boll weight. Fibre yield increase can be achieved through increasing ginning out turn. The possibilities of upgrading ginning out turn upto 39 per cent in G. hirsutum has been demonstrated by varieties like Sahana in South Zone.

(b) Quality improvement : Quality in terms of fibre properties and seed cotton oil are gaining importance. Innovations in spinning technology, such as open end spinning, jet spinning etc., require higher levels of fibre strength. Hence, high priority to breeding cotton for increased strength and maturity assumes impotance. The potential of improving fibre properties especially length and fineness, of diploid cultivated cotton needs to be exploited. The presence of gossypol in the oil is a negative attribute in terms of edible quality. The processing cost to remove gossypol from oil can be eliminated if the seeds have no gossypol glands. But gossypol is the main terpenoid aldehyde which imparts resistance against insects.

 (c) Abiotic stresses : Drought stress affects crop in rainfed areas and salinity in irrigated areas. Hence, resistance sources for both environments have to be utilised appropriately. Diploid cultivated cottons, which have stress tolerance capacities, occupy a sizable (27 lakh ha) area under rainfed conditions. Genetic improvement of these diploids (G. arboreum and G. herbaceum) needs to be given high and urgent priority so that these important genetic resources are not lost. Resitance breeding for salinity is as yet an untouched area. Under the biotic stresses, insects, like bollworms and diseases like CLCuV need urgent consideration for sustainable cotton production. Resistance to whitefly, which is the vector of CLCuV, provides solution to two problems simultaneously. Search for characters in wild taxa is ideal for breeding against biotic stresses. Transfer of palisade layer from G. arboreum to G. hirsutum is the best option for developing resistance to sucking pests.

(d) Utilizing genetic engineering procedures : Though Bt cottons are already in the field, they are associated with threats of insecticide resistance development against bollworms and instability in their bioefficacy. Hence, use of alternate sources of insecticidal proteins like tea complexes of P. luminacence and multiple gene constructs (of Cry genes) can be thought of, to overcome the negative points of Bt cotton technology. Sucking pests may also be brought under the umbrella of biotechnology, to build resistance in cotton genotypes. Exploitation of chitinase gene against diseases is another good option for breeding fungal disease resistance. Antisense technology can be employed to construct varieties resistant to leaf CLCuV disease.

(e) Miscellaneous : To achieve "Total Natural Fibre" concept, breeding naturally coloured cotton deserves consideration. Increasing spinnability of the coloured cottons in adddition to enhacing their productivity and range of colours are good areas for future work. Cotton is mostly cultivated as sole crop but area under cotton-based cropping system is also large. Development of genotypes suitable for different cropping system under different soil conditions deserves attention for in­ creasing the net income per unit area. The concept of ultra narrow spacing is the talk of the day. Short compact genotypes amenable for machine picking are important. These genotypes not only reduce dependence on labour for cotton picking but also fit in various cropping systems. Accelerated efforts have to be made for the overall improvement of cotton to reach at least the world average of productivity.

## Author : Collected from BSMRAU