Cotton Sector in India: India will be the Largest Cotton Producer

What’s in Today’s Article?

• Why in News?
• Coal Sector in India
• What is the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC)?
• India’s Efforts Towards Improving Cotton Productivity

Why in News?

• According to the Union Minister for Textiles Commerce and Industry, India will strive to become the largest cotton producer globally.
• He was inaugurating an annual global meeting - 81st plenary session of the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) - a UN recognised body of cotton producing and consuming nations.

Cotton Sector in India

• Cotton is one of the most important commercial crops cultivated in India and accounts for around 25% of the total global cotton production.
  • India has the largest area under cotton cultivation and is the second largest producer (after China).
• It plays a major role in sustaining the livelihood of an estimated 6 million cotton farmers and 40-50 million people engaged in related activities such as cotton processing and trade.
• The Indian Textile Industry consumes a diverse range of fibres and yarns and the ratio of use of cotton to non - cotton fibres in India are around 60:40 whereas it is 30:70 in the rest of the world.
• Apart from being the provider of a basic necessity of life i.e., clothing which is next only to food, cotton is also one of the largest contributors to India’s net foreign exchange by way of exports.
  • The Indian textile industry is working towards achieving $250 billion by 2030, including $ 100 billion export.
• Due to its economic importance in India, it is also termed as “White-Gold”.
• Also, India will provide leadership in cotton textiles and technical textiles. Technical textiles are man-made fabric meant for a specific function and are not generally used for apparel or aesthetic appeal.

What is the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC)?

• It is an association of governments of cotton producing, consuming and trading countries which acts as the international commodity body for cotton and cotton textiles.
• Founded at the International Cotton Meeting in Washington, DC in 1939, the ICAC advocates for cotton producing nations, publishes studies and technical information on the cotton industry.
• While most of the world's cotton producing nations are members, two of the ten largest producers (China and Turkmenistan) are not members of the ICAC.
• The ICAC along with private sector cotton organisations initiated the International Forum for Cotton Promotion (IFCP) in 2000.
  • The IFCP serves as a forum and clearinghouse for the exchange of proven cotton promotion techniques.
  • The IFCP facilitates domestically focused and domestically funded cotton promotion programs.

India’s Efforts Towards Improving Cotton Productivity

• It has two advisory groups - for cotton and manmade fibre.
  • These groups have representation from the entire textile value chain and take policy decisions with inputs from sector representatives.
• PM MITRA: India has also launched PM MITRA- a Central government scheme to set up mega textile parks and promote the entire value chain.
• The National Technical Textiles Mission: It promotes research and development in technical textiles.
• The “Kasturi Cotton Bharat” brand: Which is claimed could be traceable using blockchain technology, and that it would be “carbon positive”.
• State-of-the-art testing laboratories: The Textile Ministry and the Department of Consumer Affairs would open these labs nationwide to ensure that high quality textile products are manufactured and exported from India.
• Drone-based pesticide spraying: Indian cotton farmers will benefit from the technology, adding that the use of innovation and Internet of Things will benefit Indian cotton farmers.

Q1) What are the climatic conditions required for growing cotton in India?

Cotton is a tropical crop and it is raised in India as a Kharif crop. It requires uniformly high temperatures between 21 to 30°C and a long growing period of at least 200 frost-free days is required for the plant to mature.

Q2) What are the schemes to promote the cotton-textile sector in India?

The Government of India has been rendering support to the cotton textile sector through initiatives such as Project SURE, Scheme For Integrated Textile Park (SITP), Silk Samagra, Powertex India, Samarth, etc.

Source: ‘India will be the largest cotton producer’