Cultivation of COTTON

The cultivation of cotton and its manufacture into textiles has been practiced in India since pre-historic times. The evidences from the excavations of Mohanjodaro prove that Desi Cottons of Northern India or 5,000 years old. Spread from India to Far East and Mediterranean countries.

Preferred over synthetic fabrics because of its durability, washability, vapour transfer, softness, chemical stability, elasticity and strength on both wetting and drying. By products of cotton are cotton seed oil and cotton cake. India ranks first in area and fourth in production.

Cotton, often referred as "White gold" has been in cultivation in India for more than five thousand years. Though synthetic / man-made fibres have made inroads in many countries in the world, cotton deserves the prime position in India constituting more than 70% of the total fibre consumption in the textile sector. The economic reforms and the trade policy liberalistion carried out during the last decade with a view of globalising the Indian economy have exposed the Indian cotton textile industry to a new challenge. In India, cotton is grown over an area of about 9 million hectares and provides livelihood for over 4 million farming families.

Various allied activities like ginning, yarn and fabric production, textile processing, garment manufacture, marketing etc., provide employment to several million people. Several ancillary industries like fertilizer, pesticide, agrochemicals, dyeing industry etc., depend on cotton.

The value of textile material exported from India during 1998-99 amounted to over Rs.5,27,208 million, comprising 30% of the total foreign exchange earnings of the country.
In the last two decades, the production of cotton has gone up from 7.5 million bales in 1983-84 to 16.3 million bales of 170 kg/bale during 1998-99. This is due to the introduction of high yielding varieties, hybrids and proper management of insect pests and diseases.
The cotton required for the purpose of manufacturing yarn is cultivated in about 9 million hectares of land in India and thus India ranks first in the world. Yet, in regard to productivity of cotton, we are far behind other cotton producing countries. While per hectare yield of cotton in India is as low as 333 kgs, a small country like Turkey produces 1170 kgs of cotton per hectare and occupies the first rank in the world. The per hectare yield of cotton in USA is 696 kgs and in China it is 1026 kgs. The higher productivity in these countries is mainly due to innovative and modernized method of cultivation. In India, more than 75% of the cotton is cultivated either without suitable irrigation facilities or under rainfed conditions as well as due to the non-adoption of good seeds and manures.

However, in recent times, the adoption of improved technologies on cotton cultivation have paved the way for stabilising the yield atleast to certain extent and this is a welcome feature.