May 29:Union Minister of Textiles, Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, and Food & Public Distribution, Shri Piyush Goyal held an interactive meeting with the newly constituted Textile Advisory Group at IMC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mumbai yesterday. Shri Upendra Prasad Singh, Secretary Textiles initiated deliberations with the Textile Advisory Group which has Senior Officials from the Union Ministries of Textiles, Agriculture & Farmer’s Welfare, Commerce, Officials from the Research and Development sector, Senior Official from the Cotton Corporation of India Ltd., and stakeholders. The whole textile value chain was represented in the consultations through lead associations and experts in the meeting.
Shri Suresh Kotak, Chairman of the Textile Advisory Group & renowned veteran cotton person, chaired the meeting of Textile Advisory Group constituted in pursuance of the directions of Shri Goyal on 17.05.2022 during the Stakeholders consultative meeting at New Delhi. He particularly stressed the need to ensure seed availability for sowing especially new early maturing varieties and the need to revamp the seed system to enhance the productivity of Indian cotton from present stagnation. He elaborated on possible approaches to augmenting the availability of cotton relating to stock possibilities domestically and from other countries. Position on availability of cotton now was brought out and the request was made to help logistics to ensure shipping in time from three sources internationally. He said that as per estimates of the Committee on Cotton Production and Consumption, carry over/closing stock is 41.27 lakh bales, which is about 12.66% stock to use ratio and equivalent to stock for 45 days of consumption. Emphasizing the need of thinking and work together on the principle of “I am because WE are” for the cotton economy.
To look at productivity issues, Shri C.D. Mayee, President, of the Indian Society for Cotton Improvement highlighted various aspects of the cotton agro-economy including the latest technique of PB knot to protect the cotton crop from pink bollworm attack. Shri Vikas Patil, Director of Extension and Training, Commissionerate of Agriculture, Maharashtra put forth initiatives by the Government of Maharashtra relating to productivity enhancement, value chain development, and pink bollworm management in Cotton.
Shri Goyal exhorted that containment of factors impinging on productivity needs to be tackled in a time-bound project mode manner and the industry should participate in a self-regulatory model. The Ginning segment should take responsibility and make pheromone trap technology mandatory to monitor and prevent the spread of Pink Bollworm pest attacks from Ginneries and oil extraction units to cotton crops in farmers’ fields. He suggested that everyone be sensitized to the compulsory use of pheromone trap technology through the wide network of the Cotton Corporation of India Ltd., combined with efforts of the State Governments in this regard. The Minister also urged the industry to develop models for improving Ginning efficiency and outturn. Shri Goyal also emphasized the need for protecting the cotton crop from pink bollworm attacks with contributions from Cotton Corporation of India Ltd., Cotton Association of India, Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, and the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council.
Addressing the need for accuracy of statistics across the value chain to enable policy decisions, trade facilitation, traceability, etc., Shri Goyal directed that a portal be created with inputs from the Cotton Association, Ginners as well as Confederation of Indian Textile Industry & the Southern India Mills’ Association. The portal to work on self-compliance mode. If persuasion and self-compliance do not yield results then ‘disincentives’ can be built in the systems like Cotton Corporation of India Ltd., not to do any transactions with such defaulter and any Govt. benefits be linked to submission of details.
The core issue of Seed quality was deliberated in detail with dedicated action for the current season. Joint Secretary, Seeds intimated that a sufficient quantity of seed is available to meet the domestic requirement. Industry opined need to distinguish right from wrong types. Shri Goyal emphasized doing campaigns in farming areas to control the sale of spurious illegal seeds.
While addressing the approaches for augmentation in short term by import, Secretary, Textiles Shri Upendra Prasad Singh advised the industry to approach the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare for procedural requirements to enable import from some destinations. As regards the extension of the period of wavier of import duty up to 31.12.2022, Shri Goyal directed the concerned authorities to finalize the matter early.
Inputs on the packaging material in HDPE/color thereof would need to be facilitated with the Ministry of Chemical and Fertilisers.
The meeting was coordinated jointly by the Textile Commissioner and Cotton Corporation of India Ltd.
****
Disclaimer: We donot claim that the images used as part of the news published are always owned by us. From time to time, we use images sourced as part of news or any related images or representations. Kindly take a look at our image usage policy on how we select the image that are used as part of the news.
