PIB | 24 Jul, 2022
An
interactive meeting with stakeholders of Cotton Textile Value Chain on
improving cotton productivity & branding of Indian Cotton was held
at Vanijya Bhawan New Delhi, on Sunday in the august presence of Union Ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Piyush Goyal and Darshana
V. Jardosh.
Goyal said that its time
for India to adopt world standards in Cotton Productivity. He also said
that all stakeholders must share best practices to boost cotton
productivity in India to boost farmer incomes.
Speaking
on the occasion Goyal said that Private sector must contribute to
boost research in productivity , farmers education as well as branding
to which Government would provide matching support.
Asserting integrated
approach, Shri Goyal said that private sector has to act in a Mission
mode to strengthen the Cotton Value Chain. He further added that we need
to brand our own cotton which is good quality by equal contribution
from Industry. Action on reducing contamination issues like coloured
HDPE. Master plan to be worked out by industry within one week.
Goyal said that cotton works like a bridge between agriculture and
textile sector. Cotton-based products have significant share of total
Textiles & Apparel products both at Domestic and International
level.
With Market access opening through FTAs, it is but imperative to
get our act together to enhance Productivity and Quality both. Shri
Goyal said that we need to bring back our dominance in the global
cotton industry and India looks at Textiles as a key sector
that will help us build an “Aatmanirbhar Bharat”.
He also said
that Centre is working on ‘ 5F ’ vision of Hon’ble PM: ‘Farm to
Fibre; Fibre to Factory; Factory to Fashion; Fashion to Foreign’ . It
may be noted that Textile sector 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.
Goyal said that it is vital to increase yield and profit margins for
our cotton farmers by creating awareness about right seeds and
encouraging farmers to adopt modern technology and progressive
agricultural practices. Appreciating the examples of good work done by
some FPOs, CITI CDRA etc, he expects replication to achieve better
results across the board.
Speaking
at the meeting, Narendra Tomar said that Growth of Cotton Production and Productivity
is vital to employment growth in Country. He said that Short term and
Long term strategies are needed to be worked out for boosting
productivity. Shri Tomar said that High Density farming and
micro-irrigation are key to boosting cotton productivity in large parts
of the nation.
In
first of its kind meeting at the level of Union Ministers of
Agriculture and Textiles both, core issues pertaining to cotton value
chain were deliberated at length with outcome oriented targets assigned
to Industry Captains and Govt Functionaries alike.
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.
The whole of textile value chain was represented in the
consultations through lead associations and experts in the meeting.