The Premier of Vietnam, Nguyen Tan Dung has okayed a plan to promote and develop cotton cultivation in the country to achieve area under cultivation to reach 30,000 hectares and output to touch 20,000 tons by 2015.
The plan also envisages cotton cultivation to reach 76,000 hectares and achieve production of 60,000 tons by 2020. The plan will focus on intensive farming to increase output and quality, and develop large cotton plantations.
The Central Highland provinces will focus on using drip irrigation systems and coastal central provinces will use drilled wells and the government will offer financial support for building infrastructure and irrigation systems in cotton-areas.
The government will also grant financial assistance for activities of cotton research and technology transfer and encourage mechanization of activities related to cotton cultivation like harvesting, preserving and processing.
The country's cotton cultivation area has dropped to 3,000 hectares in the 2008-09 season from 32,600 hectares in the 2001-02 season and the production is able to meet only 2 percent of the demand of the textile industry, while the rest needs to be imported.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India