Until April last year, Imran Bozdar, a cotton grower from Sanghar, had brought 100 per cent of his land — all 150 acres — under cotton cultivation. This is not the case, however, this year. He could sow 60 acres out of total farmland so far, and the month of May has already started.

Mr Bozdar is part of a 15-member task force, formed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in March this year, to submit a report in 30 days on the countywide dwindling of cotton so that this decline could be arrested through policy initiatives. Unfortunately, this is something eluding growers.

“Delay in sowing is all because of water unavailability at my agricultural land,” Mr Bozdar said. Likewise, Nadeem Shah, another progressive farmer from lower Sindh’s Matiari district, was also only able to sow cotton on 30 acres of his land out of 150 acres till the start of May. “Sowing on 80pc of total cotton acreage was done last year as water was available. We got water flows after 21 days due to rotational irrigation supplies,” he said.

Sanghar and Matiari are the districts located on the left bank of the Indus River. The left bank areas of the river traditionally see cotton cultivation. Rice is, however, legally banned to avoid waterlogging in the area, as rice is a water-guzzling crop. Sindh’s farmers have limited choices if they want to give up cotton sowing and opt for other crops. Their Punjab counterparts have switched over to maize, corn or rice in the last several years.

Cotton sowing faces rising stress in lower riparian regions of the........

© Dawn Business