Cotton production in Bangladesh continues to be very low as farmers prefer other cash crops to it.
Media reports maintained this adding last year Bangladesh produced only 1.77 lakh bales of cotton, which represents nearly 1 per cent of the total annual consumption of 9 million bales of cotton thereby missing out on a US $ 3 billion domestic market.
Meanwhile, speaking to the media, Executive Director of the Cotton Development Board (CDB) Md. Akhteruzzaman, reportedly, held scarcity of arable land, emphasised on food production, and lower price of cotton for the farmers’ lack of interest in growing cotton even as head of the Department of Agronomy of Bangladesh Agricultural University Parvez Anwar on his part stated farmers do not have the confidence to grow cotton abundantly as they do not get ready markets and better prices while adding many other crops are grown during the cultivation period of cotton.
