From large exporter to net importer: India’s looming cotton crisis

The current summer-sown season will be his last tryst with cotton, a crop that once brought prosperity in his entire village, said Kailash Rao Kadam, a 55-year-old grower from western Maharashtra.

- Zia Haq

Although farmers like him commonly face fluctuations in profits, the lowest prices in three years, which cotton buyers however deem high because the fibre is much cheaper abroad, and a decline in productivity have convinced Kadam to switch to something else.

The worsening terms of trade has turned India, a large exporter, into a net importer. Cotton imports this year, at 300,000 bales, have outweighed its exports of 1,700,000 bales. “If I continue with cotton, it will make me a beggar,” Kadam said over the phone from Aurangabad.