Dear Sir,
In addition to my previous discussion that included at serial number 59, I would like to discuss on prospects of cotton for Sustainable agricultural development for food security and nutrition, including the role of livestock in Bangladesh.
Cotton (Gossypium sp.) is an important cash crop in Bangladesh that provides fibre, edible oil and oil cake for feeding the livestock. It is the main raw materials of Textile industry. Annual requirement of raw cotton for textile industry of Bangladesh is estimated at 5.1 million bales (1 bale=182 kg). Around 2-3% of the national requirement is fulfilled through the local production from 42 thousand hectares of land. Without impeding the food crop production in main cultivable areas, Bangladesh has the opportunity to grow cotton in non-conventional area.
CDB was established under the Ministry of Agriculture in 1972. CDB is the only government organization in Bangladesh where research, extension and seed production are done under same management system. As such cotton farmers in Bangladesh can get the latest variety and technology in time. Regular training is arranged for the farmers, staff and officers to disseminate the improved technologies. In addition to that CDB also help in marketing of seed cotton. Every year, before the harvesting of cotton CDB organizes meeting with the participation of farmers, private ginners, ministry representatives to fix the price of seed cotton comparing the international market price. That allows all of the cotton growers across the country to get the same price for cotton. In addition to that CDB provide hassle free loan to the farmers from its own revolving fund. These six activities are performed under the same management system to fulfill the CDB mission. CDB mission is to reduce the import dependency of cotton by increasing domestic production. Over the past few years the local production is in increasing trend though the area is not increasing that is due to the integrated efforts of CDB activities.
Cotton improves food security in many ways. Framers can earn extra money from intercropping one or more crop. It creates employment opportunity particularly for rural women from sowing to harvesting. Usually, women feel comfort to work at cotton field as it is dry land farming. From harvested boll we get 40% lint or fiber that used in spinning mill and 60% seed. Seed contain 25% edible oil and 75% oil cake. Presently oil is extracted and marketed in Bangladesh while the oil cake is used for fish/animal feed.
Additionally, we have the opportunity to promote cotton under changing climate as an adaptation strategy. First of all it is drought tolerant, its tap root can uptake water from deeper layer. Cotton was grown successfully at the Barind tract that is the drought prone area of Bangladesh. Secondly, it is tolerant to salinity. An experiment conducted at Sanor gacha, Jessore a saline area in Bangladesh showed that with the soil salinity increased to 30 dS/m at 45 days due to lack of rain and cotton performed well in there.
Presently CDB has been implementing an intensive project to expand cotton cultivation in 1 lac ha of land as a part of its vision 2021 in the drought prone, char, hill slope and hill valley saline as well as tobacco growing areas. To make cotton cultivation profitable to the farmers in those areas as well as climate change mitigation strategy CDB has been organizing its research management system through the involvement of different stake holders. One notable experiment conducted by CDB in 2013-2014 was the integrated use of organic and inorganic source of N in cotton cultivation. The results revealed that 30% of N requirement of cotton can be replaced by organic sources.
From the above discussion, it is evident that cotton can contribute in food security, climate change adaptation and as well as livestock production. While the animal manure can also be use at cotton field that will lead to the sustainable development in agricultural sector in Bangladesh. The Gobeshona Conference for Research on Climate Change in Bangladesh was held on 07-11 January 2015 at Dhaka, Bangladesh with the participation of national and international multi-stakeholder including policy makers, donors, researcher, and development worker. I deliberated oral presentation at this conference stating the above discusses issues. The presentation is available at:
Thank you.
With best regards,
Dr. Md. Kamrul Islam
Senior Scientific Officer
Cotton Development Board
Md. Kamrul Islam