COTTON - AGRICULTURE
News: High prices may impact India cotton exports
What's in the news?
● Cotton exports this year may fall short of the 40 lakh bales estimated recently by the Committee on Cotton Production and Consumption, traders said.
Cotton Cultivation:
● Cotton
is the crop of tropical and sub-tropical
areas and needs an evenly high temperature changing between 21°C and 30°C.
● The
growth of cotton is detained when the temperature falls less than 20°C. Ice is
enemy number one of the cotton plant and it is grown in areas having at least
210 ice free days in a year.
● The modest necessity of water can be met by an average annual rainfall of 50- 100 cm.
Soil:
● Cotton
cultivation is intimately connected to deep
black soils (regur) of the Deccan and the Malwa Plateaus and those of
Gujarat.
● It also grows well in alluvial soils of the Satluj-Ganga Plain and red and laterite soils of the peninsular regions.
Types of cotton:
1. Long staple cotton:
● It
has the longest fiber whose length
changes from 24 to 27 mm. The fiber is long, fine and shining.
● It
is used for making fine and superior
quality cloth. Noticeably, it earns the best price.
● It
is mostly grown in Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh,
Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.
2. Medium staple cotton:
● The
length of its fiber is between 20 mm and 24 mm. About 44 percent of the total
cotton production in India is of medium staple.
● Rajasthan,
Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra
are its major producers.
3. Short staple cotton:
● This
is inferior cotton with fiber less than 20 mm long.
● It
is used for producing inferior cloth and
earns less price.
● About 6 percent of the total production is of short staple cotton. U.P., Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab are its major producers.
Production:
● India has the largest
area under cotton cultivation in the world and the third largest producer of
cotton after China and the USA.
● Gujarat is the largest producer of cotton in India.
Bt cotton:
● Bt
cotton is a genetically modified organism (GMO) or genetically modified pest
resistant plant cotton variety, which produces an insecticide to combat
bollworm.
● Bt
(Bacillus thuringiensis) cotton has been commercially grown in India for the
past 19 years.
● The
Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC)
approved the release of Bt cotton for commercial cultivation in 2002 in western
and southern parts of the country.
● In
Punjab, Bt cotton was released for cultivation in 2005. Before the release, it
was adopted by 72% farmers on 22% of the cotton area.