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Sanjay Jog
September 20: The country's estimated cotton production of 180 lakh bales this year could go for a toss if the torrential rains in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana persist for another three days, the chairman and managing director of Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) MB Lal said.
In an exclusive interview with The Financial Express on Friday, Lal said that if the rains stop, the damages will be minimised. In 1997-98, unseasonal rains and severe pest attack had pulled down cotton production substantially in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka.
Lal said that the centre has already agreed to set up a Cotton Technology Mission (CTM) with four mini-missions to increasing cotton production, productivity, quality of cotton and tackle the issue of marketing infrastructure and processing of cotton. Under the proposed CTM, cotton production by the year 2001-2002 is expected to go to the level of 240 lakh bales (207.5 lakh bales as per agriculture ministry's estimates) and theproductivity at 415 kg per hectare, based on the estimates of the Cotton Advisory Board (CAB).
Lal admitted that despite significant increase in cotton production in the country, our yield per hectare is still the lowest when compared with world average of 580 kgs per hectare and the productivity of other important cotton growing countries like the US, China and Australia. He said by allowing continuous increase in the support prices of cotton without having considering the yield per hectare, may not be in the interest of the cotton economy of the country nor the cotton farmers. "A day may come when the support prices of cotton may be more than the international prices," he added.
He said that in such a situation, the textile industry would prefer to import cotton rather than obtain the same from the domestic sources and the exchequer will be saddled with huge resource mobilisation to the extent of Rs 16,000 crore, since the farmers would prefer to sell cotton to CCI at the support price level.
TheCCI has stressed the need to increase the yield per hectare and reduce the cost of cultivation of cotton for increasing the income of cotton growers rather than raising the support prices alone year after year.
Lal said that the CCI is also making sincere efforts to improve the quality of cotton and added that it has encouraged cotton ginneries to store kapas on pucca platforms to remove immature and yellow kapas and foreign matters on gin platform, suing kapas cleaners and storing seed on puccas platform by paying incentives. The CCI would extend all possible support to the crushing units in getting good quality seed in all states.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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