The State government’s measures are paying off, as Telangana is currently the third-largest cotton grower in India and the top producer in South India. Telangana became the third-largest producer of cotton, behind Gujarat and Maharashtra, with 57.97 lakh bales produced in 2020–21 and 48.78 lakh bales produced in 2021–22.
Aside from production, Telangana ranks second among States in terms of the cotton labour rate paid to employees. Although the labour wage in Telangana is Rs 98.36 per hour, it is Rs 117.88 in Kerala. It is Rs. 35.16 and Rs. 49.35 in the BJP-ruled States of Gujarat and Karnataka, respectively. Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation gave all these data in the Lok Sabha. Wednesday saw State for Textiles Darshana Jordash. The Federal Minister responded to a query from BRS MP Manne Srinivas Reddy by stating that India was a net cotton exporter, where production outweighed consumption.
He said that while there is an import duty of 11 percent (comprising of 5 percent Custom Duty, 5 percent AIDC, and 1 percent Cess) on import of cotton in India since February 1, 2021, the Union Government has kept export of cotton under Open General License (OGL) in consideration of the broader interests of the entire cotton value chain, including cotton farmers.
The Union Minister stated that the Ministry of Agriculture has created a Master plan titled “Targeting technology to agro-ecological zones-large scale” as part of the Union government’s efforts to promote the cotton industry. demonstrations of best practises to boost cotton yield,” and the National Food Security Mission approved Rs 41.87 crore for the project’s implementation (NFSM). The Department of Agriculture & Farmer’s Welfare approved the initiative with the goal of focusing on technologies including the High Density Planting System (HDPS), closer spacing, and production technology for ELS cotton (DoA&FW).
In order to increase the supply of high-quality cotton, the Union Government also issued the Quality Control Order (QCO) on February 28, 2023, which makes cotton bale certification essential.
