Cotton production in the Mymensingh division is expected to increase this season, with 2,000 hectares of land slated for cultivation, up from 1,800 hectares last year, according to officials from the Cotton Development Board (CDB) in Mymensingh.
Cotton production is now carried out by 3,500 farmers in the division’s Mymensingh, Tangail, Jamalpur, and Sherpur. Cotton is farmed in Mymensingh’s hilly parts and char areas, according to CDB Executive Director Alhaz Uddin Ahammed. He added, “There is also the possibility of cotton cultivation through intercropping.”
Cotton is a significant cash crop for farmers, according to Dr Shefali Rani Mozumder, chief cotton development officer of the CDB’s Mymensingh zonal office. With six hybrid types, a farmer may produce 110 maunds to 112 maunds (one maund equals roughly 37 kilogrammes) of cotton per hectare of land. Tk 2,700 is now the price of each maund.
Bangladesh imports 99 percent of the raw materials it needs for the textile and apparel industries since domestic production is so low.
Cotton fibre production fell slightly year over year in fiscal 2020-21, from 1.78 lakh tonnes to 1.76 lakh bales, according to CDB data.
Farmers are often less interested in growing cotton farming because it takes six months to grow, with planting beginning in July. Omar Ali, a cotton farmer in Mymensingh’s Muktagacha district, said he has been producing cotton on one acre of land for four years and has achieved a good yield as well as the anticipated profit.
Last year, Alam Mia of the same neighbourhood said he grew cotton on one bigha of land and made a nice profit. Alam, who is preparing two bighas of land this year, said he made Tk 18,000 last year producing winter vegetables in cotton fields.
Dr. Alhaj Uddin Ahammed, executive director of the CDB, told The Daily Star that they had previously developed a short-growth-duration variant called “CDB Mutant Tula-1.” This year, the concerned ministry certified it, he said.
