The Growth of Cotton and the Potential for Exports in India

Cotton is one of the important fiber and cash crops in India and the world, and it plays a significant role in the Indian economy. Cotton is known as the 'King of Fiber' crop due to its global importance in agriculture and the industrial economy. Hence, the present paper analyzes the growth and instability in cotton area, production, consumption, and yield during the period 2017-18 to 2022-23. The study was based on secondary data on area, production, and productivity of cotton crops collected from various government publications. Performance of cotton was judged on 4 important parameters, i.e., cotton production area and cotton production yield, production and consumption of cotton, imports and exports of cotton, and evaluation of cotton stock of inventory growth performance. The result revealed that, the growth rate of cotton cultivation area was 0.22 percent to 5.58 percent and yield of cotton registered a negative growth rate of 10.20 percent to a positive growth rate of 4.44 percent over the study period. In regards to production and consumption, it was negative growth of 10 percent to a positive growth rate of 10.38 percent, and the usage of cotton consumption had a negative growth rate of 2.46 percent to a negative growth rate of 3.54 percent. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the sustainable cotton production in India and to take up productivity-enhancing measures in cotton crops, such as varietal improvement and appropriate technologies.