Sustainable Cotton Farming Tech in India

India has the largest share of the global cotton area (37 per cent) and accounts for 23 per cent of the world's cotton production. Cotton contributes 2.3 per cent to the country's GDP, 13 per cent to industrial production and 12 per cent to exports. In 2023-24, textile exports were about $34.4 billion with 34 per cent attributed to cotton-based textiles, including cotton exports valued at $11.68 billion. The health of the cotton sector is crucial as 6 million farmers are engaged in production and another 40-50 million people are engaged in cotton processing, trade and value addition.

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YG PRASAD, Director. Central Institute for Cotton Research. Nagpur

Cotton in India is grown across 26 agroecological sub-regions in varied soils and climates under irrigated (33 per cent) and rainfed farming situations (67 per cent). The crop is cultivated in three distinct agroecological zones (north, central and south) of the country. The northern zone is mostly irrigated, while the percentage of irrigated areas is much lower in the central (23 per cent) and southern zones (40 per cent). Cotton is mostly grown as a rainfed crop in India with aberrant rainfall varying between 400 and over 900 mm, which is mainly responsible for a fluctuating production ranging between 310 and 360 lakh bales. Cotton productivity has stagnated around 450 kg lint/ha in recent years compared to the average world productivity of 800 kg lint/ha.

Serious limitations in cotton farming arise due to the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, especially rainfall resulting in planting delays, prolonged dry or wet spells, outbreaks of insect pests and diseases leading to challenges in decision making and poor crop performance.

Cotton farming is also largely traditional and low on mechanisation except in a few states in India.

This is mainly due to smaller farm size (~1.2 ha), prevalence of family farming and limited resources. Farm power use in cotton is estimated at less than 3 kW/ha in India compared to 3-6 kW/ha in the USA, and China and 5-6 kW/ha in Brazil and Australia due to extensive use of agricultural machinery and technology. However, rising input and labour costs coupled with low market prices for cotton are serious economic challenges faced by the cotton farming sector.

Development of novel gene technology against cotton pink bollworm (PBW)