Source: Fibre 2 Fashion via Checkbiotech.org

The Standing Committee on cotton of the ICMF Cotton Development and Research Association (ICMF-CDRA) expects the country's annual cotton requirements to reach a level of about 218 lakh bales as against 150 lakh bales in production.

P D Patodia, Chairman of ICMF-CDRA, hoped that cotton would be accorded priority as the new Government lays its thrust on agriculture and rural development. However, there was no room for complacency as demand far outstripped the yield despite the country having largest area under cotton cultivation in the world.

Low productivity was attributed as the root cause with the cotton yield at 310 kg per hectare hovered around half the world average, voiced Patodia at a meeting.

There was a dire need for the industry to be competitive in terms of price and quality in order to position itself to global challenges, he added.

He listed out the thrust areas that merit focused attention, namely: transfer of production technology to cotton growers, availability of high quality cotton seeds and other inputs to growers, new genotypes, encouraging Bt cotton and integrated cotton cultivation.

Patodia mentioned that the committee proposed to adopt a two-pronged strategy, to undertake projects on pilot basis in the cotton growing areas while educating cotton growers regarding modern cultivation techniques and generate awareness among the government authorities concerned for making concerted efforts for enhancing quality, productivity and production of cotton.

Several programs are proposed for the year 2004-5 in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh as part of these efforts.