The Vietnamese prime minister has approved a VND3,500-billion program to sustainably develop cotton trees in Central Highlands region between 2008-2020 in order to ensure sufficient materials for domestic processing factories.
The program is aimed to establish more farms specialized in growing cotton trees in three provinces of Dak Lak, Gia Lai, and Dak Nong.
Despite high demand for raw cotton, cotton cultivation area in the region has been sharply decreased in the recent years as a result of low prices, which increased by only 1.6 times over the past eight years, compared to 3.7 times for soy beans.
According to data from the Institute for Cotton Research and Development, land for cotton cultivation in the region has shrunk from 16,700ha during 2001-2002 crop to nearly 1,000ha last year.
Deputy General Director of the Vietnam Textile and Garment Corporation (Vinatex) Nguyen Huu Binh said cotton was a kind of short-maturing crop – different to crops that have been grown locally for several generations, such as coffee and rubber.
"So people are more ready to give up on it," said Binh.
Vietnam needs about 200,000 tons of cotton for domestic textile and garment production each year, however less than 2 per cent is supplied by domestic cotton growers, Binh added.
Earlier, Vinatex had targeted to develop the cotton sector to productivity of 40,000 tons of raw cotton by 2015 and 60,000 tons by 2020, with an expectation to ensure security of materials for the textile and garment sector and meet 10 per cent-15 per cent of the country’s demand in the future. (New Hanoi, VNA)
Vietnamese
