The expansion of cotton cultivation areas in Turkey is a positive development, yet shortages could occur due to the imbalance caused by the sharp increase, according to sectoral representatives.

Recent price hikes in cotton due to shrinking production in India and Pakistan, as well as falling cotton stocks of the United States, the world’s biggest exporter, has the potential to reverse a trend in which large numbers of cotton cultivation areas in Turkey were converted into land for corn due to the previously higher price of that commodity, Mutlu Doğru, head of a farmers’ union in the Mediterranean province of Adana, told Anatolia news agency last week.

Adana is Turkey’s most famous cotton production base with its fertile alluvial farmlands known as the Çukurova.
Çukurova farmers gave up on cotton and replaced it with corn, wheat and soy beans, according to Doğru, who added that they considered soy beans only as a secondary crop after wheat was harvested.

“Due to its share in the overall cultivation areas, corn farming will receive the most severe blow from the expansion of cotton,” he said.

Doğru tentatively said there would be a 40 percent expansion in cotton, based on information from large-scale farmers and cottonseed sellers.

“This is way below the levels when Çukurova was called the cotton land and we have a lot distance to cover to attain that level again, but if the prices continue their growth trend and the growers believe that it is in their best interest to cultivate cotton, then we will be able to return to those golden days,” he said.

However, he said he was also concerned about the sharp and unexpected increase that would come with its side effects.
“When cotton cultivation fell from grace, many cotton gin facilities had to close up and these facilities were sold to investors from southeastern Turkey. A 40 percent increase over the previous year does not look like a huge increase but we are concerned whether the current facilities’ production capacity and storage areas will be able to efficiently meet the demand.”

The harvesting of the cotton is also a concern; previously, the work was done by workers but it is now done by machines, he said. “Now we are worried about whether the current number of these machines will suffice.”

Doğru said the solution to the issues would only be possible if the Çukurova Cotton, Peanut and Seeds Agriculture and Sales Cooperatives Association, or Çukobirlik, opened its current capacity to private sector on contract.

“Only if they give production authorization to contract manufacturers from the private sector with their own cotton gins and harvesting machines will we be able to solve the problem. Çukobirlik is the biggest organization in cotton farming. What would be their purchase policy? We carry expectations and question marks about that,” Doğru said.

‘Çukobirlik needs to protect farmers’ labor’
Meanwhile, Anatolia news agency reported separately Thursday that Çukobirlik Chairman Abdurrahman Bal had confirmed the expansion of cotton cultivation areas in a written statement. He also said the association was working on turning this increase to their members’ advantage.

Gathering at a meeting with the association board members to determine strategies in creating new resources for cotton purchase, Bal said research had showed that cotton would continue to bring good profits for another few years.
Underlining that Çukobirlik needed to play a key role in the given process to protect the farmers’ labor, he said it needed to increase funding capacity and influence.

"We continue to look at increasing our equity capital and we have gone a long distance toward success. We developed some very good projects, we will realize them and during the next campaign period we will evaluate Çukobirlik members’ crops in the most profitable way. No one should doubt that,” he said.

At Thursday’s closing, Çukurova cotton was being sold at 6.75 Turkish Liras per kilogram on the Adana commodity exchange. On the same day on the ICE Futures U.S., cotton prices surged by the maximum permitted for a second day, Bloomberg reported. Cotton for May delivery advanced by the exchange’s 7-cent limit, or 3.6 percent, to $1.9912 a pound at 8:32 a.m. in New York. A close at that price would leave the commodity down 2.8 percent for the week, after dropping from a record $2.197 on March 7.

Source: Hürriyet Daily News