News Excerpts:

Recently, The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour, Skill Development and Textiles highlighted in its recent report that India is in dire need of new varieties of cotton seeds and plants that are adaptive to the soil and climatic conditions to improve its cotton cultivation.

Committee's Observations:

• The kg per hectare yield in India is extremely low when compared with kg per hectare yield of other major cotton producing countries. 
• The committee notes that this low per hectare yield in India is due to the fact that the Bt seed technology in the country has become outdated and there is an urgent need for a new variety of seeds.
• The panel asked the Ministry of Textiles to do a comprehensive study on how to increase the productivity of cotton. 
• It noted that the problem with genetically modified seeds is that farmers have to buy the seed every year, leading to the start of their debt journey, which gets steeper as the pesticides, fertiliser and labour costs add up without a commensurate increase in yield.
• On the government’s decision to exempt all cotton imports from customs duties, the committee said it might lead to an inflow of cheap cotton from other countries.
• In the absence of effective procurement and a price stabilisation fund to ward off the adverse impact of such inflow on prices could lead to an added burden on the already crisis-ridden cotton farmers in the country. 

Climate & Soil Requirement:

• Cotton is a semi-xerophyte crop and is grown in tropical & subtropical conditions.
• Warm days and cool nights with large diurnal variations during the period of fruiting are conducive to good boll & fibre development.
• Cotton is grown on a variety of soils ranging from well drained deep alluvial soils in the north to black clayey soils of varying depth in the central region and in black and mixed black and red soils in the south zone. 
• Cotton is semi-tolerant to salinity and sensitive to water logging and thus prefers well drained soils.
• The soil requirements for cotton cultivation involve a well-drained loamy soil with good moisture retention capacity and adequate fertility.
• Black soils, also known as regur or black cotton soils, are renowned for their suitability for cotton cultivation. 

Bt cotton:

• Bt cotton was introduced in India in 2002 and now covers over 95% of the area under cotton cultivation.
• Bt cotton is Genetically modified (GM) cotton, the plant contains the pesticide gene from the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).
• The main reason for the large-scale cultivation of BT Cotton has been its resistance to bollworm and other pests.

Way Forward:

• According to the committee the Ministry of Textiles in consultation with the Ministry of Agriculture should take necessary measures for protection guaranteed to the cotton farmer in the form of assured procurement at remunerative prices at least one and a half times the cost of production of cotton by the farmers.
• According to the Committee the Ministry of Textiles should do a comprehensive study on how to increase the productivity of cotton.
• New cotton seed varieties should be based on proper research on Indian soil, climate and region’s characteristics.
• New seeds should be less costly so that extra load from farmers can be reduced.