Cotton output likely to increase 4 pc to 34.5 m bales

In the cotton year ending September on the back of sharp rise in yield per hectare, the cotton output is expected to increase 4 percent to 34.5 million bales (of 170 kg each). According to the second advanced estimate released after the Cotton Advisory Board met here on Friday the yield per hectare is expected to increase to 541 kg from 459 kg, however, acreage under cotton dropped 11 percent to 10.84 million hectares (12.29 million hectares).

Kavita Gupta, Textile Commissioner and Chairperson of CAB, said that cotton export is expected to decline to 6 million bales this year from 6.9 million bales last year with concern over availability of cotton in domestic markets.

She added that there are reports of pink ballworm attacks in Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh, and whitefly attack in Punjab and Haryana. But better crop management and efficient protection mechanism would reduce the impact on the productivity in the coming season.

The area under cotton crop is expected to bounce back to 11.9 million hectares the next season and the output is set to grow in double digits.

They are expecting the area under cotton to increase as the monsoon was on time and farmers got a better price for their crop. So, some area under pulses was diverted to cotton.

The use of home-grown cotton variety developed by the Central Institute for Cotton Research, Nagpur, has increased this year.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research has also come up with more native varieties, which are good in yield. Once they are commercialised in 2017-18, the area under the indigenous variety is likely to increase further.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture data, it shows that till mid-August an 18 percent increase in cotton acreage for the crop year 2017-18 (October–September).