Cotton Association of India (CAI) forecasted that the overall sowing would drop by nearly 10 per cent due to falling yields and low price realisation in FY ‘23/24. According to official data, the cotton crop was grown in around 12.38 million hectares during the 2023 kharif season, which was more than 3 per cent less than in FY ’22.
Atul Ganatra, President of CAI, states that ,”Cotton seeding has already decreased by an average of 18 per cent FY’23 and worry if sowing persists cotton productivity could decline even more,” CAI’s committee reported that cotton production in India is predicted to be 8 per cent lower than FY’22, at 29.4 million bales (1 bale = 170 kg), the lowest in 15 years.
Ganatra said that the largest difficulty the Indian cotton sector confronts is increasing. India accounts for around 38 per cent of global cotton acres, or nearly 12.5 million hectares among an overall of 33 million hectares.
Its per-hectare production is just around 2.22 bales, whereas the global typical yield is almost 675 kg lint per hectare (which is approximately 41 per cent less).
“The cause of this decrease in cotton yield is that our BT seed technology is quite old and changes in the climate. Similarly, El Nino impacts are also causing devastation on India’s cotton crop, since 73 per cent of cotton-growing land is unirrigated.
In the last decade, India’s per hectare cotton production achieved its highest level of 572 kgs, but yields have decreased by over 30 per cent since then since equipment still needs to be upgraded.
According to CAI, it might need around 41.4 million bales of cotton every year, though the national output has decreased to approximately 29.4 million bales.
