The lack of enough farmland, labour, and Government support—especially in terms of innovation and investment—has prevented Bangladesh’s cotton industry from growing throughout the years, reportedly.
As such, despite being the world’s second-largest exporter of textile products behind China, the nation’s garment industry still substantially depends on imported cotton, according to many experts.
Bangladesh’s cotton crop currently only provides 4 per cent of the 85 lakh bales (each weighing around 218 kilogrammes) that the nation’s 450 spinning mills need each year.
The Cotton Development Board (CDB) officials attribute the sluggish increase in domestic cotton production to a lack of sufficient funding, land, labour, and research.
According to the most recent report from the CDB, the total acreage of cotton cultivation increased by an average of only 1 per cent per year in the seven years leading up to fiscal 2022–2023, when it was at 45,000 hectares.
Between fiscal years 2016–17 and 2022–23, the CDB invested over Taka 160 crore to promote local cotton growing; nevertheless, it was only able to increase output by 3–4 per cent.
The CDB established a goal in 2022 to increase the area under indigenous cotton farming to one lakh hectares by 2030. However, if current trends continue, the CDB will need another 170 years to accomplish this target.
Since its establishment in 1972, the CDB has only created nine high-yielding cotton types, which has led to a slight increase in the nation’s cotton production.
During the four years between FY 2019–20 and FY2022-23, the CDB spent Taka 30.58 crore on research; nevertheless, the result was a meagre 9% increase in domestic cotton production.
