CCAC may revise estimated cotton target downward

Pakistan will miss the cotton target set for the current season (2015-16) as the Cotton Crop Assessment Committee (CCAC) may revise the estimated cotton target downward for the fourth time to 11 million bales against the initial estimate of 15.49 million bales, it is learnt.
The committee will meet with Secretary Amir Muhammad Khan Marwat in the chair on Monday while representatives from Pakistan Central Cotton Committee, Pakistan Cotton Standards Institute, Karachi Cotton Association, Trading Corporation of Pakistan, Provincial research and extension officials will also attend the meeting. According to sources, pink bollworm and whitefly has severely attacked the crops in Sindh and Punjab. Further climate change, consistent rainfall has also negative affected the cotton crops. The officials concerned said that due to low cotton prices last year, farmers were hesitant in utilising fertilisers and pesticides which resulted in poor crop management in the current season.
CCAC is expected to set the new target at 11 million bales. Earlier cotton sowing target was missed by about 10 percent due to unprecedented rains during the early cotton sowing season. Due to low cotton price, the wheat harvest was prolonged and resultantly a significant decline in cotton sowing was registered; besides the heat wave had caused severe flower shedding in cotton crops areas.
Government 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 monsoon rains, floods and standing water affected cotton crop on about 0.9 million acres and CCAC revised the production estimate downward to 9.3 million bales. However after the pink bollworm and whitefly attacks, cotton crop is badly damaged and the projection was revised downward to 7.4 million bales. The crop production is likely to be further revised downward to 7 million bales in the upcoming CCAC meeting.
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 monsoon rains and floods the production estimate was revised downward to 3.5 million bales as standing crops on about 0.3 million acres were damaged. The projected estimate was revised downward to 3.4 million bales after pink bollworm and whitefly attacks badly affected the crop. Balochistan is projected to produce 0.58 million bales from 0.1 million acres against the initial target of 0.58 million bales and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 0.0015 million bales from 0.001 million acres, with no significant change.