Cotton output estimates revised downward

The Cotton Crop Assessment Committee (CCAC) Tuesday revised the cotton production estimates downward by over 12 percent to 13.59 million bales against the initial estimate of 15.49 million bales for the current season (2015-16), after heavy rains and floods damaged the crop. The meeting of CCAC was held with Amir Marwat federal secretary ministry of textile industry in the chair to assess the volume of current cotton crop in the country.
Representatives of provincial governments of Sindh and Punjab, Plant Protection Department, Trading Co-operation of Pakistan (TCP), cotton growers, All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) and Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC) attended the meeting. Dr Khalid Abdullah, cotton commissioner presented an overview of cotton production in the country including challenges faced by cotton crop especially lower prices, high input cost, rains and floods that damaged cotton crop.
The Federal Committee on Cotton (FCC) had set cotton target for 2015-16 at 15.49 million bales from 7.7 million acres. Punjab was projected to produce 10.5 million bales from 6 million acres; however it missed the sowing target and grew cotton on 5.6 million acres registering a decline of about 6 percent. The recent monsoon rains and floods affected cotton crop on about 0.9 million acres and CCAC revised the production estimate downward to 9.3 million bales.
Sindh was projected to produce 4.4 million bales from 1.6 million acres. The sowing was on 1.4 million acres thereby missing the target by 10 percent. After the recent rains and floods the production estimate was revised downward to 3.7 million bales as standing crops on about 0.3 million acres were damaged. Balochistan was projected to produce 0.59 million bales from 0.1 million acres and Khyber Pakhtunkhawa 0.00152 million bales from 0.001 million acres, with no significant changes. Representatives of the provincial government explained the methodology for crop assessment and informed the meeting about the crop estimates.
Member representing APTMA maintained that the assessment is realistic and the ground realities are very close to the forecast. Cotton growers emphasised the need for price intervention by the government in a way that benefits growers directly. Secretary, MinTex, stated that cotton crop size is assessed on the basis of data provided by provincial governments, yield parameters of cotton. The next CCAC meeting to make a second assessment will be held after 3-4 weeks.