Federation to take up various issues affecting cotton

The Indian Cotton Federation (ICF) would take up various issues, including branding, strengthening of Indian arbitration procedures for domestic, exports and imports, that are affecting the cotton sector.
In his address to the Annual General Meeting, ICF President J Thulasidharan today said with new Government in place and through its policy initiatives, economy was showing signs of a turn around and also see hope for the manufacturing sector ahead.
Stating that agriculture was also showing signs of improvement in production and growth path, he said textile industry was also looking up with new policy initiatives.
For 2014-15 season, September-October, about 10 per cent growth in production was predicted, the estimates showed a growth in area by about 7 to 8 per cent.

If everything goes well, and the agro climatic conditions are normal, the cotton production may touch 400 plus lakh bales, Thulasidharan said, adding, with 12 million hectares of area, the country may soon touch the first position in the global cotton production.
The cotton consumption has shown a growth of 7 to 8 per cent during this season and imports are only around less than 20 lakh bales and cotton exports around 115 lakh bales.

However, the mismatch between what the mills needed and what the farmers produced, needed a relook to reduce the gap, he said.
On future strategy, Thulasidharan said that branding cotton, strengthening of Indian Arbitration procedures for Domestic and exports/Imports, constitution of National Cotton Board like Coffee Board, early announcement of National Fibre Policy and reintroduction of Cotton Technology Mission and implementation of GST, have to be taken up.

Farmers should be allowed to pledge their kappas to avail credit facility and allow them to sell when they get fairly good return, he said, adding, buffer stocking system of at least 10 per cent of production to meet the shortage of quality cotton, should be allowed.