To improve the falling yield, the textile industry has sought the second edition of technology mission on cotton (TMC-II).
The industry wants to bring back the TMC earlier launched in 2000 in a revised format with 4 mini missions. The mini missions would give thrust on cotton technology development, cotton technology transfer, cotton lint preparation on par with international quality parameters and branding of Indian cotton and its textiles and clothing products.
The textile commissioner has formed several working groups for preparing a detailed proposal for TMC-II, the industry said asking the textile ministry to take up the proposal with the PMO and the ministry of agriculture.
According to a statement by different textile associations in south India, yield that had gone up after the implementation of the first TMC, has been falling in the recent years.
Cotton production had risen from 17.8 million bales in 1999 to 39.8 million bales in 2013-14. During this time, the area under cotton cultivation had increased from 92 million hectares to 128 million hectares and India became the largest cotton producer in the world.
But the government closed TMC a few years back stating that necessary benefits would be made available through different schemes of the agriculture ministry. “In the process, cotton has lost its importance. Productivity has dropped below 500 kg per hectare from 580 kg per hectare and the annual cotton production has dropped below 34 million bales from 39.8 million bales and is likely to go below 30 million bales,”said M Senthil Kumar, chairman, Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA).
The industry finds that the existing BT technology that helped India raise the yield, expired a few years agao and currently cotton farmers are suffering due to technology obsolescence and the absence of proper transfer of technology.
Due to falling yields, some state governments have started asking farmers to cultivate other crops.
