India needs to double cotton farmers’ income: top official

India needs to double the income of cotton farmers and non-farmers associated with the cotton industry by 2022 in addition to raising cotton productivity and improving its quality, the country’s textile commissioner Kavita Gupta said recently. The planned second technology mission on cotton would make that possible, she told cotton researchers in Nagpur.

Expressing concern over the declining quality of Indian cotton, she said contamination and adulteration are the two major problems that need to be addressed to bring cotton to international standards and be competitive.

Despite having the highest area — around 36 per cent — under cotton cultivation and being the biggest cotton producer, India’s productivity was almost half of that of the major cotton growing countries. The average productivity in India was 500-570 kg/hectare compared to the world average of more than 900 kg/hectare, she said. India exports one third of the produce.

Gupta was speaking at the valedictory function of the three day Asian Cotton Research and Development Network (ACRDN) meeting organized by the Indian Society for Cotton Improvement (ISCI) in collaboration with the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC), the Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR) and the Central Institute for Research in Cotton Technology (CIRCOT).

India launched its first technology mission on cotton in February 2000 with an aim to raise yield, improve quality, increase farmers’ income by reducing the cost of cultivation and improve the infrastructure in the market yards by modernizing the ginning and pressing factories and setting up new units.