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, today in the august presence of Shri Narendra Singh Tomar,  Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Shri Piyush Goyal,  Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textiles and Smt. Darshana V. Jardosh,  Minister of State for Textiles & Railways.

Shri Piyush Goyal , Union Minister for Commerce & Industry , Textiles , Consumer Affairs  and Food & Public Distribution 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 Shri 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.

Shri 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.

Shri  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, Shri Narendra Tomar, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare 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.Shri Upendra Prasad Singh, Secretary Textiles, Shri 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.

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MS