Cotton – the textile fibre in focus
( Under specific reference to Gujarat) (Page 1)
The World’s cotton industry represents over million-dollar enterprise from the production of raw fibre to finished Textile goods. In India cotton is the backbone of our textile industry, accounting for 65% of total fibre consumption in this sector. It is also an important cash crop, contributing around 30% to the gross domestic product of Indian Agriculture.
Cotton share in total use by the Indian textile industry is again forecast to increase substantially in near future. This is mainly because of comfortable cotton production and supply situation vis-à-vis MMF (Man Made Fibre) in the recent past. Industry, with phasing out of quota regime, has given a boost on cotton requirement in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh in the recent past. As estimated, domestic use will surpass previous records in India in the coming years.
Cotton out put has shown a record growth of 270 lakh bales in the Current year of 2005 –06(Oct-Sept.) as against 244 lakh bales during previous year. State like Gujarat has shown a remarkable production of 100 lakh bales in 2005-06 as against 92 lakh bales in the previous year. However, India is projected to continue to import primarily longer staple varieties from Egypt and the United States in the coming years. Though there is a steady decline in import of Cotton in the country.
Recent phenomenon development of Cotton production in the country and, in specific, for Gujarat was found mainly due to plantation of GM Crop (Bt Cotton). India planted (15% cotton cultivated area) 550,000 hectare (1.36 million acre) of Bt. Cotton in year 2003-04 up around 460% from a year earlier. Gujarat’s share has been 50% of the total area under Bt-cotton cultivation in the country. State saw a jump in cotton cultivation after introduction of Bt Cotton seeds from a mere 1.8 lakh bales in 2002 to around 80 lakh bales in 2005 and over100lakh bales in 2006. This situation is still going to improve due to availability of Narmada water which will cover further new area for cultivation.
US Biotech firm Monsanto’s Indian arm, Monsanto Biotech (India) was initially the only one with the governments permission to sell Bt Cotton in the country, resulting in large scale illegal seeds finding their way in to farms. Later, this forced the Centre to approve conducting trials and commercial production of hybrid Bt Cotton, and several companies have since licensed the technology from Monsanto and rolled out hybrid Bt Cotton verities. However, recently MRTPC has asked US biotech major Monsanto to reduce prices of Bt Cotton Seeds. Now, India’s first indigenously developed Bt Cotton by Metahelix Life Sciences, Bangalore has gone for multifield trials, which would be priced 30-40% cheaper and is likely to be in the market by this year. This is again expected to give a boost cotton production still further.
International expert opines that India to surpass the cotton production of US to become 2nd largest cotton producers in the world in the near future. This favourable situation enables the country to cope up with growing cotton need by subcontinent in this quota free regime. With export subsidy likely to further improve, the Indian Cotton price is expected to be more competitive and countries like Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia and China are expected to look forward to import cotton from India.
Over the year Cotton cultivation and Ginning activities have gained a significant importance in the overall Indian Textile. Govt. of India first launched the Technology Mission in Cotton (TMC) in February 2000 to make cotton cultivation remunerative to the farmer and to enable mills to get good raw materials at reasonable price by:
- Increasing the productivity of cotton
- Reducing the cost of cultivation; and
- Improving fibre attributes particularly for staple, micronaire and strength
Secondly, to reduce contamination in cotton by:
- Improving infrastructure of cotton agriculture market; and
- Modernising the ginning and pressing factories.
Improvement both in quality and productivity could again bring export of cotton from 9.50 lakh bales in 2004-05 to 47 lakh bales as of now i.e. October 2005 to September 2006. Here, too Gujarat achieved a significant position of exporting 28 lakh bales in the same period from just 4 lakh bales in 2004-05.
Today both Quality and productivity of Cotton has improved and accepted well world over. Looking to the importance of this sector and as a part of revolutionising this activity, Govt. of India, under Technology Mission on Cotton has set to modernise 1000 Cotton Ginning & Pressing unit across the country by 2009. Out of 777 units already sanctioned under the scheme, 401 units are in Gujarat alone followed by Maharastra (250 units), MP (37 units), Punjab (35 units), AP (19 units) and others. As of now majority of the units in Gujarat have gone for Modernisation under the scheme. However, intervention is still required in improving method and practices to achieve contamination free Cotton with acceptable norms for Textile Industry.
In the State like Gujarat, there are about 233 Ginning & Pressing units, 249 Ginning units and only 14 Pressing units. Area wise Ginning & Pressing units in Gujarat are:
Sr No |
Name of District/Cotton region of Gujarat State |
No. of units |
|
Mehsana |
124 |
|
Ahmedabad |
83 |
|
Jamnagar / Manavadar |
65 |
|
Rajkot |
50 |
|
Bhavnagar |
44 |
|
Surendranagar |
42 |
|
Vadodara / Bharuch |
32 |
|
Sabarkantha |
19 |
|
Patan |
16 |
|
Porbandar / Anjar |
13 |
|
Amreli |
08 |
The Government's National Agriculture Policy envisages that "private sector participation will be promoted through contract farming and land leasing arrangements to allow accelerated technology transfer, capital inflow and assured market for crop production, especially of oilseeds, cotton and horticultural crops". According to the contract, the farmer is required to plant the contractor's crop on his land, and to harvest and deliver to the contractor a certain amount of produce, based upon anticipated yield and contracted acreage. In an important and recent development, Government of Gujarat has taken a policy decision to introduce Contract Farming and Corporate Farming in the State, which is expected to give a boost for cotton cultivation still further. Under the Corporate Farming, big Industrial Houses and competent farmers will be given government wasteland on lease for cultivation with the help of modern technology and Urban Solid Waste as fertilizer. Many of the industrial houses with textile background have already shown interest to do so, in specific, for cultivation of cotton. The emerging quality issues and cost control initiatives have led Indian Textile companies like Arvind, vardhman, Nahar, TT and Royal Classic going for contract farming of cotton.
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