Commodity Online
India is weaving a big success story in the cotton fields by merging as one of the major players in the cotton market. To add to this, India has become the second largest producer of cotton in the world for the 2006-07 season, beating the US.
According to reports, India it is all set to retain that position next season starting October.
According to D K Nair, secretary-general of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, a series of developments in cotton field have resulted in this achievement.
The main reason being pointed out for this success is the increased use of Bt Cotton by farmers.
While the US saw some cotton areas being switched to grains as the latter's price hit multi-year highs in the commodities market in the last two years, India's cause has been helped by concerted efforts of the Centre, growers and textile industry.
The yield went up considerably and, to some extent, Bt Cotton also helped.
The real increase in production and yield began from that point but Bt cotton helped mainly in cutting down input costs and growers' losses.
Cotton yield has gone up by 65 per cent since 2003. From around 302 kg a hectare during 2002-03, it is up to 518