A meeting of various stakeholders of cotton textile value chain on improving cotton productivity and branding of Indian cotton was held at Delhi in the presence of Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce & Industry, and Textiles and Darshana V. Jardosh, Minister of State for Textiles.
In a first-of-its-kind meeting at the level of Union Ministers of Agriculture and Textiles, core issues pertaining to cotton value chain were deliberated at length with outcome-oriented targets assigned to industry captains and Govt functionaries alike.
Senior officials from the Union Ministries of Textiles, Agriculture & Farmer’s Welfare, Commerce, Environment, Forest and Climate Change, officials from Research and Development sector, senior officials from corporations, farmers, seed industry and stakeholders were also present in the meeting.
The whole of textile value chain was represented in the consultations through lead associations and experts in the meeting.
Piyush Goyal insisted that its time for India to adopt world standards in cotton productivity. All stakeholders must share best practices to boost cotton productivity in India to improve farmer incomes.
He also said that the 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 (high density polyethylene). Master plan to be worked out by industry within one week,” he said.
He said that 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.”
Narendra Tomar said that growth of cotton production and productivity is vital to employment growth in the country. He said that short-term and long-term strategies need to be worked out so as to boost productivity.
