Piyush Goyal gives clarion call to stakeholders in cotton sector for farm-to-foreign

New Delhi, July 25 (KNN) All stakeholders must come together in mission mode for holistic growth of cotton textiles value chain in India to achieve the country’s vision of farm to foreign, said Union Minister Piyush Goyal at stakeholder meeting on Sunday.

During the interactive meeting on cotton productivity & branding of Indian cotton, Goyal emphasises on the need to bring in the private sector to contribute in boosting research in productivity, farmers education as well as in branding.

“The Centre is working on ‘5F’ vision that is Farm to  Fibre; Fibre to Factory; Factory to Fashion; Fashion to Foreign,” he said.

Speaking at the meeting, Narendra Tomar, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare said that density farming and micro-irrigation are key to boosting cotton productivity in large parts of the nation. “This will also help in increasing employment,” he added.

One of the decisions coming out of the meeting is that an action plan on reducing contamination issues like coloured HDPE will be worked out by industry within one week.

Goyal also highlighted that it’s vital to increase yield and profit margins for the cotton farmers by creating awareness about right seeds and encouraging farmers to adopt modern technology and progressive agricultural practices.

The textile sector in recent times has taken giant strides from RoSCTL to RoDTEP& NTTM to PM Mitra for increasing cotton and textiles production in India.

Agreements for duty-free access of Textiles with Australia & UAE have given a new impetus to the trade and similar agreements with EU, UK & Canada are being negotiated.

Upendra Prasad Singh, Secretary Textiles, Vijoy Kumar Singh, Special Secretary, Senior Officials from the Union Ministries of Textiles, Agriculture & Farmer’s Welfare, Commerce, Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Officials from Research and Development sector, Senior Officials from Corporations, farmers, seed industry and stakeholders were present.  (KNN Bureau)