India's cotton saga will not be complete without mentioning Gujarat, a state which produced 104 lakh bales of cotton worth Rs 8,000 crore in 2006-07.
With this record production, Gujarat has emerged as India's number one cotton producing state. Before the arrival of Bt Cotton, Gujarat produced about 33 per cent of India's total cotton output. Following the introduction of Bt Cotton, Gujarat's yield per hectare has gone up and the state now contributes almost 36 per cent of the country's total production.
However, hardly 10 per cent of the total cotton produced in the state is consumed locally as most of the textile units, barring a few in Ahmedabad and Surat, closed down during the past two decades.
So, 90 per cent of the cotton produced in the state is either exported or sold in the textile towns of south and north India. According to Arun Dalal, a leading cotton broker in the state, about 40 per cent of the cotton was exported from Gujarat while another 50 per cent sold out to textile mills in other states.
In north India, Gujarat cotton was the most sought-after one. The centres where Gujarat cotton was sold are Ludhiana, Bhilwada and Pali in Rajasthan. Even though Punjab and Haryana also produce cotton, hosiery manufactures prefer Gujarat cotton for its better quality.
In south, cotton from Gujarat found its market in Madurai, Dindyal and Coimbatore. Since most of cotton fabrics manufactured in Coimbatore were meant for export to European and US markets, textile units in Coimbatore preferred Gujarat cotton.
According to Kishore Shah, secretary of the Central Gujarat Cotton Dealers' Association, about 40 lakh bales were exported from Gujarat to countries such as China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, Indonesia and Malaysia in 2006-2007. In fact, China is the main buyer of Gujarat cotton as its staples are quite long and very strong. Total export from India in 2006-07 was 57 lakh bales.
With demand of Gujarat cotton increasing in the domestic and international markets, more areas in the state are coming under cotton cultivation. Central Gujarat region, including Ahmedabad district, north Gujarat and Saurashtra are the main cotton growing areas in the state.
According to V S Shah, former director of the Gujarat State Seeds Corporation and now working as a cotton consultant, farmers in Gujarat did not face any hardships unlike their counterparts in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.
The reason: high yield (over 700 kg per hectare) due to aggressive cultivation of high yielding Bt Cotton and good prices it fetched for farmers. "Gujarat benefited a lot from Bt Cotton variety because it helped farmers to improve their economic and social status, it also helped them pay their debts,'' said Shah.