We are here on the eve of the celebration of the World Cotton Day 2024, which we are celebrating, the Ministry of Textiles and CITI are collaborating to celebrate the World Cotton Day.
But yes, I will say that in our fortune sector, our story is largely built on the origin. And for this, I would like you to go back to April 2022 to the summer of 2022 when we were all waking up to the reality law. Our shortfall of 40 lack bales of cotton and the industry had planned for 360 lacks, but in April, May, in March.
And this shortage of such a large number of bales was creating a lot of underutilization of the investment that our industry had to make. And then, if I remember we had done our journey of collaboration and convergence with the textile advisory group being formed. And with this textile advisory group, to the entire value chain.
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Was represented and in this charged-up the atmosphere we had taken up further of the quarter value chain, beginning with the raw material security, and then advancing towards the issues of contamination and crash and still further towards productivity and yield of, I think this platform has actually been a very important milestone in our journey.
The 'World Cotton Day' has been one such important platform where since the last two years we have all come together to discuss what we have achieved and what are the challenges that we need to address. I'm very glad to say that because of these collaborations, we have been able to bring about some, bring about some relief to the burning issues.
Like, remember that we work together. across a lot of time ministries and trying to change the white fertilizer bags to colored fertilizer bags so that it leads to less contamination in cotton. But more than that, I would say that the convergence with the Ministry of Agriculture was one of the hallmarks of our convergence efforts.
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Today question one should be raised on intertwined issues like productivity and yield and the concern for the quality of fibre security is also real.
So how do we significantly address the concern of climate change/vagaries farmer dependency being both on rain-filled and irrigated resources and production augmentation which again, also is dependant on the operational practices across the textile value chain, and resultant fallout how we were advancing from being a net exporter to being a net importer.
At this point, we, alongside the Ministry of Agriculture, worked out a holistic plan, which was discussed in High-density planting (HDP) funnel, and tried to focus on high-density planting and narrow spacing, closer planting systems. I would say that we've had very good results with this pilot plan, and the farmers whom we interacted with, because of this holistic plan found that they were very hopeful that these agronomic practices were being implemented and the extension services were resulting in the higher yield per hectare.
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It was found that increasing the yield automatically leads to a doubling of the farmer's income. I agree that the cotton economies are disputed, but what is important is that a farmer's income needs a fair price and security. And giving a constant higher yield, and higher productivity is going to actually lead to better farmer's income and a healthier textile value chain.
Another important point is going to lead to a better farmer's income and this is where we began with the first-ever graduate-certified and traceable cotton called 'Kasturi cotton'. And on the sidelines of a TA meeting in Varanasi, we had the Cotton Corporation signing an MOU for the Kasturi cotton.
And, this is the third year. Of course, we have a long way to go. Line ministry is also been monitoring the performance of the food economy as the debate around food versus cotton crops is perpetual. And even today, we are approaching this cotton summit one important milestone, in which we are going to sign an MOU with some brands, so that the connection between the farmers, the ginners, the spinners, and the mills, the entire value chain is completed.
I'm glad to say that today, we have the presence of the Secretary of Agriculture. in the closing valedictory session. And I think it's very important that, and, it's very unique to today's "World Cotton Summit", and the Minister of Agriculture has always been a part of, World Quarterly celebrations, but today when we have the Secretary of Agriculture coming in, I think it's a great platform for us to highlight the issues that we are facing in cotton.
Cotton is called a commercial crop, but in fact, in the place where I began my career in Maharashtra, we find that it is actually a poor man's crop. And especially in the society where it is, especially in the farmers where it grows, which is drought-prone and rain-fed, we find that cotton is the most preferred legacy crop as well.
So I would urge all the stakeholders today that in this valedictory session, which is going to have our Honorable Minister, Giriaj Singh Sir, who is very passionate about cotton and has entrusted the Ministry of Textile and the Ministry of Agriculture to come together to saturate 'Akola district', which is one district in Maharashtra, which has had a practice since quite some time of (HDPS), involving ICR Institute, other stakeholders holding and has a series of meetings right up to the collector level to try to understand how we can saturate a particular district and increase the yield up far higher per hectare than what we are averaging with a healthy delta.
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So, with this historic platform being available to us, with both the minister and our secretary of agriculture and secretary of textiles coming together, I think it is a golden chance for all of us to express, what we have done so far and what are the challenges and the solutions aligned to the target.
So I wish all of us the very best for our important journey and hope that we celebrate more such international occasions as a forward-looking statement.