India Needs To Adopt World Standards In Cotton Productivity: Piyush Goyal

It is time for India to adopt world standards in cotton productivity and all stakeholders must share best practices to boost cotton productivity in the country to boost farmer incomes, Union Minister for Textiles Piyush Goyal said.

The minister was attending a meeting with stakeholders of Cotton Textile Value Chain on improving cotton productivity and branding of Indian Cotton at Vanijya Bhawan. He said that private sector must contribute to boost research in productivity, farmers’ education as well as branding to which government would provide matching support.

“Private sector has to act in a Mission mode to strengthen the cotton value chain. We need to brand our own cotton which is good quality by equal contribution from Industry. Action on reducing contamination issues like coloured HDPE. Master plan to be worked out by industry within one week,” Goyal said.

He said that cotton works like a bridge between agriculture and  textile sector. Cotton-based products have significant share of total textiles and apparel products both at domestic and international level. With Market access opening through Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), it is but imperative to get our act together to enhance productivity and quality both.

“We need to bring back our dominance in the global cotton industry and India looks at textiles as a key sector that will  help us build an “Aatmanirbhar Bharat”,” the minister added.

Speaking further he said that Centre is working on ‘ 5F ’  vision  of  Prime Minister which stands for ‘Farm  to  Fibre;  Fibre  to Factory; Factory to Fashion; Fashion to Foreign’ . It may be noted that textile sector has taken giant strides from Rebate of State and Central Levies and Taxes (RoSCTL) to Remission of Duties and Taxes on Export Products (RoDTEP) and National Technical Textile Mission (NTTM) to PM Mitra for increasing cotton and textiles production in India.

Agreements for duty-free access of textiles with  Australia and  UAE  have given a new impetus to the trade and similar agreements with EU, UK and Canada are being negotiated.

Goyal said that it is vital to increase yield and profit margins for our cotton farmers by creating awareness about right seeds and encouraging farmers to adopt modern technology and progressive agricultural practices. Appreciating the examples of good work done by some Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), CITI CDRA, he expects replication to achieve better results across the board.

Meanwhile, Union Minister for Agriculture and Famers’ Welfare Narendra Tomar who was present in the meeting said that growth of cotton production and productivity is vital to employment growth in country. He said that short-term and long term strategies are needed to be worked out for boosting productivity.

Tomar said that high density farming and micro-irrigation are key to boost cotton productivity in large parts of the nation. In first of its kind meeting at the level of union ministers of agriculture and textiles both, core issues pertaining to cotton value chain were deliberated at length with outcome-oriented targets assigned to industry captains and Govt functionaries alike.