The Association said that instead of agency-bound quotas, it may be advisable to open up the export front to all agencies in the different sectors so that increased competition may lead to fuller utilisation of the quotas and higher foreign exchange earnings.

At the 76th annual general meeting on Monday, association president Suresh Kotak stressed the need for setting up a National Cotton Board for proper coordination among various agencies and taking a comprehensive view of the problems facing each segment and formulate policies and action plans for strengthening the textile industry as awhole in the larger interest of the country.

He welcomed the centre's desire to include cotton as a priority crop under the National Agricultural Technology Project (NATP) and added that the project conceived as a joint venture of the department of agricultural research will be funded by World Bank. He informed that the research programmes will be demand driven and aimed at resolution of location specific problems of the production systems.

Kotak said that the NATP was to be reinforced by the Technology Mission on cotton a specific programme to contain the incidence of leaf-curl disease in the north zone. "Hopefully, these concerted efforts may soon bring about a salutary change on the cotton front," he added.

Kotak said that the emerging cotton scenario relating to the ensuing 1998-99 season appears to be a refreshing contrast to that of 1997-98. A variety of adverse factors conspired to bring down its production drastically to around 15.4 million bales in 1997-98 from the peak level of 17.8 millionbales reached in 1996-97.

However, Kotak said that adequate and timely supply of irrigation water and sufficient rains at the right time appear to have facilitated extensive cotton planting in the current year. Though there was a fall in some states, the total cotton area at the national level was set to exceed that of 1997-98.

He said that one would like to sound a note of caution since September and October months were always critical in deciding the fate of the crop in the north and central zones. Moreover, there were potential threats to the crop in the coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh also where cyclones in November-December were not unusual.

"However, at this point of time, one can be sanguine about another bumper crop which, in all probability, may set a new record, provided there are no natural calamities and pest outbreak," Kotak said.