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Better cotton yields save the day against fall in acreage

24
Oct '08

According to estimates of the Cotton Advisory Board, cotton production is expected to touch 32.2 million bales (1bale=170 kg) in the current cotton season. This is higher than last year's figures of 31.5 million bales.

Out of this figure Gujarat will contribute 11.1 million bales, Maharashtra 6.2 million bales, Andhra Pradesh 5.8 million bales, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh 2.0 million bales each and the rest shared by other states.

The total area under cotton cultivation is expected at 9.26 million hectares with Maharashtra alone scoring with 3.13 million hectares. Gujarat with 2.41 million hectares, Andhra Pradesh 1.31 million hectares, Madhya Pradesh 0.64 million hectares and Punjab with 0.56 million hectares follow Maharashtra in area under cultivation.

Gujarat again leads the list with the highest yield from amongst all states with a yield of 774 kg. Andhra Pradesh with 748 kg, Tamil Nadu 708 kg, Rajasthan 627 kg and Haryana with 610 kg make up for the other top five states with the highest yields.

The main matter of concern is that area under cultivation has gone down in comparison to the previous year; however production is not anticipated to be affected due to expectations of higher yields. Area under cultivation in the previous cotton season was 9.55 million hectares and average yield was 560 kg.

But in this cotton year cultivated area has gone down to 9.26 million hectares, but yield is projected to grow to 591 kg, which will help in making up for the loss in cultivated area.

As per the projections of the Cotton Advisory Board, total availability of cotton in the new season is predicted at 37.0 million bales. This figure has been drawn from an opening stock of 4.3 million bales, crop size of 32.2 million bales and imports 0.5 million bales.

Against this consumption of major mills is estimated at 20.3 million bales, small mills 2.3 million bales, non-mill usage 1.5 million bales and exports at 7.5 million bales to tote up a consumption of 31.6 million bales.

The estimates for consumption are nearly the same as the previous cotton year with only exports expected to fall by 1.0 million bales. The closing stock is likely to be 5.4 million bales against 4.3 million bales in the last season.

The new cotton arrivals are slowly picking up and the Cotton Corporation of India has started purchasing from the markets. Nationwide cotton arrivals had reached 80,000 bales per day till last week.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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