Organic Window

India is endowed with tremendous potential for producing both coloured and organic cotton. Cotton scientists have been working for years to evolve technology to harness this potential. Indeed, brownish cottons (known in commercial circles as Coconadas 1, Coconadas 2 and Red Northerns) used to be grown in large tracts of Andhra Pradesh till the 1960s. They went out of cultivation with the advent of new cotton varieties which had much higher productivity and superior fibre qualities. India possesses genetic sources of naturally coloured cottons having different shades of brown, green and red. Significant breakthrough has already been achieved in developing commercially viable varieties of brown cotton while work is underway to achieve the same result for cottons of other hues. One of the new coloured cotton strains, KC 94-2, is reported to have a good yield potential and fibre properties.

In the case of organic cotton, too, India is advantageously placed to capture the global market. Though wholly or partly irrigated cotton is the biggest consumer of pesticides, there are still unirrigated cotton belts in the country where the use of chemicals, be it fertilisers or pesticides, is nil or negligible. These and several other areas can easily be converted into organic cotton bowls. Indigenous technology to replace chemicals with organic manures, bio-fertilisers and vermicomposts is already available. So are the techniques for controlling pests and diseases through biological means. Madhya Pradesh has already taken a bold step in this direction. About 6,000 cotton growers around Bhopal have reportedly put some 10,000 hectares under organic cotton this year. Other states can follow this example in the interest of cotton growers as well as the country