Introduction of advance technologies needed for high yielding cotton seeds: Union Minister Piyush Goyal

New Delhi, Nov 9 (KNN) To enhance productivity of cotton in India, there is a need to introduce advanced technologies related to high yielding cotton seeds and innovative agronomy such as High Density Planting System, said Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry on Monday.

For increase of cotton productivity, Goyal emphasized that supply of good quality cotton seeds is the need of the hour and requires some concrete action from related Ministries on war footing.

He was attending the third interactive meeting with the Textile Advisory Group (TAG) at Vanijya Bhawan in New Delhi to review progress of initiatives for cotton value chain.

Goyal called upon the textile industry to self-regulate towards branding and certifying Indian cotton 'Kasturi' and assured that the government will support the initiative with funds matching the industry contribution. He also emphasised on strengthening testing facility, needed to conform to Kasturi standards, DNA testing and traceability.

Goyal assured that adequate modern testing facilities would be created through the Bureau of Indian Standards and Textile Research Associations.

Darshana V. Jardosh, Minister of State for Textiles and Railways, Rachna Shah, Secretary Textiles, Suresh Kotak, Chairman, TAG, Senior Officials from related Ministries and cotton value chain stakeholders were present at the meeting.

Goyal appreciated the Action taken by Industry and its nominated body to work on Quality, Traceability and Branding of KASTURI Cotton. Government shall be supporting the initiative with funds matching to Industry Contribution.

He also noted that the quality of Indian cotton fibre is paramount, therefore implementation of cotton bales quality control order under the BIS Act 2016 is a must for the standardisation of cotton bales. The actions initiated subsequent to the last interactive meeting held in New Delhi were reviewed at the meeting by the minister.

A holistic plan for increasing cotton productivity was presented by ICAR-Central Institute for Cotton Research - (CICR), Nagpur, for improving cotton productivity through a farmer awareness programme, HDPS and global best farm practices.

On mechanization of picking by use of hand held kapas plucker machines, developed by SIMA-CDRA, which would support the farmer producer, Goyal urged that textile Industry and Industry Associations should join hands to promote and popularize mechanization.

The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) will take up this project in mission mode with distribution support from Cotton Corporation of India Ltd. Industry Associations and Industry leaders together agreed to fund 75,000 hand held kapas Plucker machines.

Responding to the demand of Industry for change of colour of fertilizer bags (that are reused by farmers in cotton picking and storing) which have been attributed as one of the major cause of contamination in cotton, Goyal highlighted that Government of India has notified ‘One Nation One Fertilizer’ scheme which defines logo and pattern, to take care of this concern.  (KNN Bureau)