The Cotton Association of India (CAI) has insisted to provide policy support to scientists and technology providers as the country desperately needs more GM cotton-like revolutions.
Cotton is one of the most important cash crops in India. India produces about 6 million tonnes of cotton every year which is about 23 per cent of the world’s total cotton production.
Addressing the 100th AGM of CAI, Atul S Ganatra, President, CAI said, “It is imperative to provide policy support to scientists and technology providers to undertake such initiatives as the country desperately needs more GM cotton-like revolutions. Popularising high-density planting, farm mechanisation and giving a thrust to research-oriented agronomy are some other important way-forwards to increase our cotton productivity at least to the world cotton average productivity mark.”
It was highlighted that India’s cotton production increased from 307 kg per hectare to 566 kg per hectare from 2001 to 2013. Its credit goes to the introduction of Genetically Modified cotton technology. The yield of cotton in India which took five decades to increase in productivity of 200 kg per hectare prior to GM cotton technology took merely five more years to achieve another 200 kg per hectare.
Indian textile industry is primarily cotton based and the ratio of use of cotton to non-cotton fibres in India is around 60:40 whereas it is 30:70 in the rest of the world.
Atul also said the import duty on cotton has eroded the competitiveness of value-added products in the international markets and the textile industry is now constrained to work with only 50 per cent of its installed capacity.
Urging the Government to remove the import duty, he said that levy of import duty is a retrograde measure not in consonance with free trade policy of the country and sends a wrong signal to the world cotton community.
