Rains take toll on cotton crop

KARACHI: The widespread heavy rainfall is feared to have played havoc with the standing crop of cotton in Pakistan. Initial and rough estimates suggest the downpour has damaged 10% to 50% of crops in fields, mostly in Sindh.
Estimates of losses suggest the country will return to the international market to make heavy imports of the commodity this year to run textile mills, which earn around 60% of the total export proceeds of the country.
The heavy rainfall has left a large number of people homeless and hurt their cattle in Sindh. The cattle comprises almost half of the agronomy in Pakistan.
On the contrary, the water-resilient sugarcane and paddy (rice) crops are hoped to have largely survived the torrential rainfall nationwide.
“National space agency Suparco’s (Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission) data and satellite images suggest water has inundated (the fields), mostly in Sindh,” Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC) Vice President Dr Muhammad Ali Talpur said while talking to The Express Tribune.
It is too early and very difficult to project crop losses at this point in time when a rain spell is in progress. Anyhow, “the initial, verbal and rough estimates suggest the nation has lost 10-15% of cotton crop due to the ongoing downpour,” he said.
“Almost 95% of the crop, estimated at 10.5 million bales of cotton, is in the fields at present.”
Most of the rain-related losses are feared in Sindh, which produces almost 30% of the total crop in the country. Punjab, which produces the rest of the 70% cotton crop, has received slightly heavy rainfall and may have largely survived with limited losses, he said.
Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association’s (PCGA) former chairman Jassu Mal Leemani said, “It has been raining non-stop for the past two days in upper Sindh. Yesterday, torrential rains put almost the entire cotton crop at high risk in the fields.”
He elaborated that cotton could not survive if it remained in one-foot water for about 24 hours while two to three feet rainwater was present in the fields for the past two to three days.-Agencies