The Union Minister of Textiles Giriraj Singh while addressing the august gathering reiterated the commitment of the government to achieve the target of $350 billion by 2030 including export target of $100 billion. This could only be achieved, if all the stakeholders in the cotton value chain join hands together. He also shared the experience of how adoption of best farm practices  like high density planting, closer spacing, drip fertigation etc, can increase the yield to even 1,500 kgs per hectare as against the present national average yield of about 450 kgs. Therefore, there is a dire need to adopt best farm practices on saturation mode. The outcome of this pilot project will encourage the farmers of other areas to adopt these practices for better yield.

The one-day conference in commemoration of World Cotton Day 2024, highlighted best practices and sustainable farming methods, traceability, ESG data points for connecting farm to fashion, targeting technology like HDPS, spanning from farm to fibre to factory to fashion to foreign. Brainstorming sessions addressed crucial topics, including Enhancing Sustainability & Traceability, Decent work in cotton supply chain, Evolving Trends in Cotton Farming and Cotton Trading and Risk Management for Enhancing Quality & Productivity of Cotton, the Ministry of Textiles said in a press release.

During the inaugural session, Rohit Kansal, additional secretary, ministry of textile highlighted that the country has set a target of creating a textile ecosystem of $350 billion by 2030 from the current $176 billion. He urged the stakeholders of cotton textile value chain to be cognisant of the challenges that are being posed by current and potential competing fibres so that cotton will be a legacy sector of Indian textile industry, further he emphasised the sustainability is a sine qua non for cotton textile value chain. 

Rachna Shah, textiles secretary in her address mentioned about the importance of the cotton economy, which provides livelihood to six million cotton farmers directly and another employment to 45 million people engaged directly or indirectly in various other activities in the cotton value chain. She mentioned about the share of cotton fibre to the total fibre in the country at about 60 per cent, where the same is at 23 per cent in the world. However, she urged all the stakeholders of the cotton value chain to concentrate in increasing cotton productivity, as India ranks 35^th in terms of yield. She appealed to all stakeholders to adopt a collaborative approach to address this serious challenge of productivity, being faced by the entire cotton value chain.

Shubha Thakur, additional secretary, MoA&FW while discussing the initiatives of the government in increasing yield of cotton, reaffirmed the ministry’s commitment to work in close coordination with ministry of textiles, in adopting best farm practices by the farmers so as to improve livelihood of the farmers.  

Prajakta Verma, joint secretary, ministry of textiles while delivering keynote address informed that enhancing sustainability is paramount and therefore the ministry has encouraged collaborative approach through formation of Textile Advisory Group (TAG) where the challenges of textile industry are being addressed through participative approach. She also highlighted inter-ministerial coordination in launching the initiative of a holistic plan to increase cotton production and yield which enable the farmers to increase their income.

Lalit Kumar Gupta, CMD CCI highlighted the important role being played by CCI as central nodal agency in empowering cotton farmers by use of technology and providing an alternate market channel for selling their produce.

Rakesh Mehra, chairman, CITI, emphasised that cotton being the oldest fibre in the textile industry plays a significant role in driving economic growth, employment generation, and providing livelihood to farmers, women empowerment. He urged that cotton be produced more and more and increase productivity so that the industry gets the raw material at competitive prices.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RR)