The Union Minister of Textiles, Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal has insisted that India must aspire to be in world’s top 3 in cotton productivity (from the current position) and also increase the cotton productivity to 800-900 kg per hectare from the current level of 457 kg per hectare.
He said that it is sad that India’s productivity is abysmally very low in comparison to global average.
He was addressing Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) Interactive Cotton Webinar coinciding with the 2nd Anniversary of Global Cotton Day, Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav and CITI-CDRA Golden Jubilee Celebrations, virtually held. The theme of the Webinar was “Cotton: Moving Beyond the Conventional Paradigms.”
Darshana Vikram Jardosh, Minister of State for Textiles and Railways; Upendra Prasad Singh, Secretary (Textiles) also addressed the event.
T. Rajkumar, Chairman, CITI appealed to the Minister that though many structural issues on raw material front have been resolved, the Technology Mission on Cotton II (TMC II) is one structural issue on raw material front, which was still pending.
He said that in the absence of technology support, it is resulting in low productivity and Minister of Textiles may resolve the same on an urgent basis as TMC II could help the cotton farmers in increasing their productivity level.
The eminent speakers, moderators and subject experts from across the globe held detailed deliberations in both the sessions and shared their valuable insights and expert opinions on improving the sustainability, quality and productivity of Indian cotton.
They felt that India has all the required resources which can make India a global leader in the cotton textile value chain.
The only thing which India lacks at the moment is the stakeholders’ willingness to adopt global best farming practices, high quality seeds, innovative technologies, etc., which make other cotton growing nations far ahead of India. The audience appreciated the deliberations held by the experts in all the sessions.
