Textile industry to submit proposal for improving cotton quality & productivity

New Delhi, July 27 (KNN) The Textile Ministry will soon submit a proposal to the government to improve the quality and productivity of cotton.

On Tuesday, Ravi Sam, chairman of the Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA), said that the industry will submit a proposal to the government, start engaging with the farmers, and also extend support to them to increase productivity and improve quality. The aim is to start working with the farmers for winter sowing.

"To improve the standards of cotton cultivation, a multifaceted approach needs to be taken by farmers to sow quality seeds, improve soil health, and reduce contamination in cotton," he said.

On July 24, a meeting with the cotton stakeholders was conducted in the presence of Union Textile Minister Piyush Goyal and Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.

The meeting emphasised on the need to find ways to best adopt global practises in cotton cultivation. During the stakeholder’s meeting, it was decided that there is a need to build testing facilities from farm to industry, produce clean and contamination-free cotton, have a strategy to curb the illegal sale of spurious seeds, and educate younger farmers to use genetically pure certified seeds.

"The stakeholders should come together and work on a mission mode for the holistic growth of the cotton textile value chain," Goyal said at the meeting.

Recently, a press release from SIMA, the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, and the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council stated that the annual cotton production in the country is estimated to drop to the lowest level of 315 lakh bales this season.  (KNN Bureau)