The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Demand-supply gap in cotton to be addressed

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Monday, Jun 18, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Demand-supply gap in cotton to be addressed

Staff Reporter

Scientists told to give thrust to increasing productivity

Coimbatore: The year 2006-07 has been a comfortable year for cotton production, with exports exceeding 50 lakh bales to China.

The maximum contribution was from Bt cotton.

A contrasting picture exists in Tamil Nadu, because of the growing gap between demand and supply, C. Ramasamy, Vice-Chancellor, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, said here on Friday.

“The current demand of the State is 70 lakh bales, while the supply is 4.5 lakh bales. The industry is forced to spend a huge amount of money on transporting cotton from other States to Tamil Nadu,” he said while addressing a two-day annual research meet on cotton at the university.

Though the production of yarn and textiles for export had increased considerably after the removal of quantitative trade restrictions, the Vice-Chancellor felt that the country needed to play a greater role in cotton economy.

He urged the scientists to give more thrust to productivity increase by means of developing new varieties and hybrids with enhanced genetic capability.

He also told them to develop improved management and plant protection practices, in addition to evolving new Bt varieties, to bridge the gap.

He expressed concern over the incidence of bollworms and sucking pests in cotton. He told the scientists to solve the problem of increased production costs fuelled by growing labour costs.

Labour scarcity

“Labour scarcity is assuming large proportions in Tamil Nadu. This calls for greater mechanisation of cotton cultivation, particularly cotton harvesting, which has seen less progress. Pricing and procurement of cotton are complex issues and unless effective structural changes in land ceiling are implemented, effectual pricing and procurement policies cannot be formulated,” the Vice-Chancellor said.

He underlined the need for more studies to be taken up in organic cotton that had proved to have a niche market.

He commended the “Farmers Field School” (FFS) in cotton as an effective transfer of technology approach, and was optimistic that such extension programmes of the university would benefit cotton development.

T.S. Raveendran, Director, Centre for Plant Breeding and Genetics, TNAU, presented the thrust areas of crop improvement research for the year.

He also made a mention of the cotton hybrids that were currently undergoing on-farm testing.

R. Samiyappan, Director, Centre for Plant Protection Studies, TNAU, spoke on the bio-intensive stem weevil management measures to combat the stem weevil pest in cotton.

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