The Hindu Business Line : India tops in world organic cotton output

Chennai, Oct. 31 Call it compulsion or accident, the fact is India is now the world leader in production of organic cotton. The country’s organic cotton output increased 292 per cent during 2007-08 to 73,702 tonnes compared with the previous year. But this is what the Organic Exchange’s Organic Cotton Farm and Fibre Report 2008 had to say: “While this (production details) is partially the result of more accurate data, the increase is also a result of unavailability of fertilisers, prohibitive cost of synthetic pesticides and general disenchantment with genetically modified cotton production.”

However, it says India is undeniably the world leader in this field and showing signs of continued increase in production. And, in turn, it has pushed global organic production by 152 per cent to 1.46 lakh tonnes. This means India contributes exactly half of the world’s organic cotton output.

Higher demand

Mr D.K. Nair, Secretary-General of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industries, says the rise in organic production is due to increased demand for organic cotton products. “We are the second-largest producer of cotton and second-largest exporter. We will soon emerge as the largest exporter, as US production is falling,” he said.

The Organic Exchange report also concedes that increase in global production could be attributed to “heightened market demand”, besides identification of unknown projects and improvement in data collection.

Govt role

The report also attributes the rise in output to the efforts of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority or Apeda. “The Authority is attempting to shift the focus of farmers’ lives from mere subsistence to strength and prosperity, especially in organic cotton industry,” it said.

Besides, the Centre has set up an Organic Cotton Advisory Board, while a National Centre for Organic Farming has been formed to improve farming practices and fund research through NGOs, universities and research institutes.

Within the country, Madhya Pradesh leads in organic cotton production, followed by Maharashtra and Orissa.

“The huge push for GM cotton in States such as Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh continues to hamper adoption of organic cotton,” the report said.

The Organic Exchange report said the most difficult challenges in India were lack of strong scientific research and development, unavailability of non-treated seeds, shortage of organic fertilisers, disorganised dissemination of information, difficulty in providing advance payments for production and lack of adequate information sharing and communication down the supply chain.

“Organic cotton farming is more popular than eco-labelling and more farmers are taking to it,” said Mr Nair. It also fetches them premium but no data is available on the exact gain for the farmer.