Spreading textile hubs

Govt must focus on downturn in cotton production

The Central government’s reported plan to create 75 Tiruppur-like textile hubs in the country reflects over-ambition as it has come at a time when the survival of even the existing cotton-based industry is at stake due to high prices and shortage of the basic raw material. Cotton prices are ruling at an 11-year high, rising by nearly 30 per cent in the past year alone, due to virtual stagnation in production and bourgeoning domestic and export demand. Nearly 10 per cent of the spinning units in the South, including many in Tiruppur, have shut down and most factories elsewhere are operating at less than half their capacity. The competitiveness of the Indian cotton products, including garments, has been hit hard, resulting in some export orders getting diverted to rivals such as Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Worse still, the situation is predicted to endure even in the next cotton year (2022-23) as the remedial measures taken by the government have failed to produce the desired results.
 

The root cause of the woes of the textile sector, which is not getting the attention it merits, is the downturn in the domestic production and productivity of cotton due largely to the ill-advised policies regarding genetically modified (GM) Bt-cotton hybrids, the mainstay of the country’s cotton revolution. Cotton output has been stagnating at 34-35 million bales (of 170 kg each) despite an expansion in crop acreage in the past few years. The average cotton yield, which had touched 566 kg a hectare in 2013-14, has plummeted to 450-500 kg. This is dismally low compared to the global average of around 800 kg, and the robust yield levels of around 1,800 kg routinely bagged by farmers in countries like Australia and Brazil. Agricultural scientists attribute this drop to lack of induction of any new technology, especially improved Bt-cotton hybrids, since 2006. While the original Bt-cotton strains, which had triggered the cotton revolution, have lost their potency, their replacements are not available because of the government’s unwillingness to approve new GM seeds.

As a result, India has fallen five to six generations behind other countries in terms of introducing advanced Bt-cotton hybrids. Though the 10-year moratorium on the approval of GM crops ended in 2019, the government’s Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee, which is supposed to evaluate the new GM seeds prior to granting permission for cultivation, continues to evade taking up new seeds for consideration. Thus, some of the newly developed herbicide-tolerant Bt-cotton (HTBt-cotton) seeds, which help reduce the cost of controlling both weeds and pests simultaneously, are finding their way to the farmers’ fields through illegal routes. The farmers are said to be paying a premium of over 50 per cent to acquire such unauthorised seeds. All the government needs to do is to allow the commercialisation of the latest technology, especially the new generation HTBt-cotton seeds, so that cotton production could keep pace with the growing requirement for the benefit of all stakeholders in the textile sector. While the farmers would earn higher incomes, the industry would get raw material at reasonable rates. More importantly, Indian textile products would become price-competitive in the global market. Unless these basic issues are suitably addressed, it would be pointless to plan for proliferating textile hubs.