Mumbai, July 14 (KNN) Cotton production is estimated to drop to 338 lakh bales in the 2015-16 from 386 lakh bales in the previous year as farmers are shifting to other crops like pulses due to higher incentives, said Kavita Gupta ,Textile Commissioner.

Coming out in favour of the farmers, the textile industry said, “we cannot blame farmers for this.”

Talking to KNN, President of The Textile Association (India), Arvind Sinha, said that farmers cannot be blamed because yield has also gone up. Farming techniques have changed over a period of time. For some reason there is less cultivation and may be the crops have got damaged in various areas.

“The rainy season was terrible last year,” he added.

Gupta told the reporters that as the international cotton prices are weak as compared to the domestic rates and imports are also expected to go up to 15 lakh bales during the year compared to 14.39 lakh bales in the previous year.

The President said that the issue is getting debated in many forums because there is a new Textile Minister. “The things will again start and government have to make the import easy. We can import cotton from Africa and Australia etc but it is going to be costlier.”

Commenting on the low production of cotton for the year 2015-16, he said that the impact would be very bad. Cotton prices will go up and it is already going up. Yarn prices are not going up and mills are closing down. Import will not be feasible as the rupee already is being depreciated.

"The international cotton prices may weaken further due to more stocks coming in the market from October," she added.

Commissioner also said exports are likely to grow as China, which is low on stocks, will improve its inventory. "China has recently said that its inventory is down, so their import will go up. They have said they will buy from India," she added. (KNN Bureau)