Revamp of cotton farming to help boost production in India

livemint.com:

NEW DELHI : In a move aimed at arresting the declining cotton production in India, the Union government plans to promote the shift of cotton cultivation from disease-infested fields to disease-free cultivatable and irrigated areas within Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, Maharashtra, and Telangana, according to two officials. Shifting of cultivation means farmers in identified disease-free districts will be encouraged to change from conventional crops to cotton and those in infected areas would be motivated to shift to other crops. The plan could double cotton production to 30 quintal per acre.

This comes in the backdrop of cotton area, production and productivity registering a declining cotton production trend of 31.6 million bales in 2023-24 from 33.6 million bales in 2022-23. In recent years, there has been a sharp decline in ‘white gold’ production, as per textile ministry data. Annual production in 2017-18 was 37 million bales (170 kg each) that fell to 33.3 million bales next year.

After growth in 2019-20 (36.5 million bales), it slipped to 35.2 million bales in 2020-21 and 31.1 million in 2021-22. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the research arm of the agriculture ministry, is working on a proposal to promote shifting of cotton cultivation from pink bollworm affected areas to fields which are not yet infected by insects like pink bollworm, and whitefly. In areas where cotton has been grown for an extended time, insects like pink bollworm and whitefly form a complex that infects all cotton crops grown in those specific regions, the first official said.