Cotton production may jump 5% next year

While the acreage declined in the southern zone, there was an increase in the north zone

Cotton production in the next cotton year (2009-10) is likely to go up by 5 per cent, according to estimates of the textiles ministry. According to the first estimates by the Cotton Advisory Board (CAB), the country is expected to see a crop size of 30.5 million bales (1 bale = 170 kg) in the period.

The Indian cotton year runs from October to September. In the current cotton year, country’s production is expected at 29 million bales. According to the ministry officials, deficient rain this year has failed to impact cotton cultivation as the crop requires relatively less rainfall than other cash crops. This has resulted in an increase of acreage under cotton.
 

ON THE ASCEND
State	Area (lakh hectares)

%
chg

’08-09’09-10 Punjab5.275.361.71 Haryana4.565.2014.04 Rajasthan3.024.1537.42 North Zone12.8514. 7114.47 Gujarat23.5425.859.81 Maharashtra31.4234.9511.23 Madhya Pradesh6.256.463.36 Central Zone61.2167.269.88 Andhra Pradesh13.9910.63-24.02 Karnataka4.082.73-33.09 Tamil Nadu1.090.19-82.57 South Zone19.1613.55-29.28 All India94.0696.552.65

As per the CAB statistics for 2009-10, the overall acreage has increased by 2.65 per cent to 9.65 million hectares against 9.40 million hectares in 2008-09. While most of the states have shown an increase in acreage, southern states have witnessed a fall in acreage with Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, have witnessed a decline of 24 per cent, 33 per cent and 82 per cent, respectively. Orissa too followed suit recording a fall of 7 per cent.

Some states, including Rajasthan, Punjab, Maharashtra and Gujarat, have seen a big jump in acreage which in the case of Rajasthan has been as high as 37 per cent. Area under the genetically altered version of the crop (Bt cotton) continued to rise. Out of the total land under cotton for 2009-10, around 80 per cent, or 7.63 million hectares, is under this hybrid variety.