India's Cotton Yield

Greaves.Next. Parag Satpute, managing director and group chief executive officer of Greaves Cotton, discusses the road map and the company's focus areas

A pilot project involving 15,000 farmers across eight major cotton growing states has been launched to deploy agronomy practices for improving the cotton crop yields, a top official said on Wednesday. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research is expected to conduct an evaluation of these practices in January, a Textiles Ministry official said. "We are working very closely with Agriculture Ministry and other stakeholders on increasing the cotton productivity and a pilot project has also just been launched in which almost 15,000 farmers are involved across at least eight major cotton growing states," Textiles Secretary Rachna Shah said. "... we are using best agronomy practices, the high density planting system which will help enhance productivity and other local innovations," the Secretary told reporters.

India is likely to produce 34.4 million bales of cotton in the 2022/23 season that started on Oct. 1, up 12% from a year ago after farmers expanded the crop area, a trade body said on Tuesday

Higher output could help cool the rally in global and local cotton prices, which is hurting Asian apparel makers

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday called upon all stakeholders to make concerted efforts to improve cotton yield and productivity in India to enhance farmers' incomes

New stock arrivals as well as the Omicron Covid-19 variant's expected impact on demand is likely to arrest any further rise in cotton prices during the short-term, said India Ratings and Research

In a major disappointment for the new entrant farmers, cotton crop has come under severe pest and ballworm attacks in major producing states which feared a sharp decline in India's fibre productivity this kharif season.While a substantial cotton area came under whitefly attack in Punjab and Haryana, pink ballworm was reported to have attacked standing crop in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. Consequently, analysts have started revising estimates of cotton output growth for the current season to 4-5 per cent now from 10 per cent earlier on a sharp increase in acreage.If this estimate proves true, farmers who shifted from pulses and edible oilseeds to sow cotton for better realisation, would certainly get disappointed with a possible decline in their income this year due to low cotton output. Therefore, despite farmers' strategic shift for high income-oriented crops, their woos are likely to continue even this year as well."Cotton crop is reported to have damaged in Gujarat due .