Cotton farmers in Bangladesh are missing out on the $3 billion domestic market with their growing preference of other cash crops, says MD Akterruzzzaman, Executive Director, Cotton Development Board(CDB). Last year, the country produced only 1.77 lakh bales of cotton which or only around 1 per cent of the total annual consumption of the raw material of nine million bales. This has raised cotton imports price to over $3 billion annually from the US, African countries, Australia, Brazil, Pakistan, and Central Asian nations, he adds.

As per a Daily Star report, scarcity of arable land, emphasis on food production, and lower price of cotton are responsible for farmers' lack of interest in growing the textile raw material. Parvez Anwar, Head, Department of Agronomy of Bangladesh Agricultural University adds, farmers also do not have the confidence to grow cotton abundantly as they do not get ready markets and good prices. The CDB hopes to lift cotton output to 2 lakh bales by 2022 and 3 lakh bales in the next five years, as a part of its plans to grow the crop on one lakh hectares by 2030 and meet 10 to 15 per cent of local demand.

Currently, the board is implementing three major initiatives to boost cotton production and improve quality. It is executing extended project for cotton production involving Tk 150 crore; a capacity-building project involving Tk 63 crore; and a donor-backed project to improve the quality of the raw material involving Tk 8 crore. The state-run organization has teamed up with a UK-based international clothing brand to enhance the capacity of 15,000 farmers under a project. The CDB mainly provides technical support. Moreover, there are two more projects under the CDB aimed at alleviating poverty through cotton cultivation in hilly areas such as Bandarban and providing soft loans to farmers.