Increase in production is expected to be high at 40 per cent in count group 1s to 10s, above average at about 35 per cent in 21s to 30s, average at 25 to 28 per cent in th four count groups 31s to 40s, 41s to 60s, 61s to 80s and 81s and above and low at about 15 per cent in the count of group 11s to 20s, they said.

Saying that cotton requirements in 2004-05 is estimated to be 206 lakh bales, the paper said 38 to 40 lakh bales each were needed in three count groups 1s to 10s, 11s to 20s and 21 to 30s; 54 lakh bales in counts 31s to 40s, 17 lakh bales in counts 41s to 60s and nine lakh bales in count 80s and above.

The share of counts in the range of 1s to 10s could be expected to rise by about 2.5 per cent and that of 21s to 30s would drop by about one per cent and counts in the range of 11s to 20s expected to decrease by two per cent, the study said.

Cotton counts of 1s to 10s were projected to account for the largest proportion of total production (24.9 pc), closely followed by counts 31s-40s (23.4 pc), 11s to 20s (22.2 pc) and 21s-30s (18.6 pc) in 2004-05, it said.The finer counts of 41s-60s would account for 6.5 pc and super fine counts of 60s and above for 4.4 per cent, the estimate said.

In order to meet the projected yarn production, cotton consumption was expected to increase by about 40 per cent, the authors noted.Placing the land area under cotton at 10 million hectares in 2004-45, a marginal increase over the level of 9.3 million hectares in 1998-99, a yield per hectare of 350 kg would be sufficient to meet the projected requirements quantitatively, they said.

However, considering that the current yield per hectare was below world average and close to 300 kg, the targetted production of about 350 kg per hectare was not achievable, they pointed out.

They also suggested the urgent need to reduce the level of contamination in cotton, by better ginning and to reduce the number of cotton varieties from