As India strives to scale its textile and apparel industry to $350 billion by 2030, transforming the foundational cotton sector is paramount. Despite being a leading global producer, India faces a critical productivity gap and evolving international sustainability demands. In this interview, Ashwin Chandran, Chairman of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI), shares expert insights on bridging this gap. He discusses the transformative potential of the Mission for Cotton Productivity, the role of Kasturi Cotton Bharat in global traceability, necessary procurement reforms, and the collaborative framework required to drive long-term resilience from farm to fibre.
How do you assess India’s current cotton productivity gap, and what are the most urgent areas that need intervention?
A report prepared jointly by Gherzi and the International Cotton Advisory Committee on India’s cotton sector, released in May 2026, pointed out that over the past two decades, national average yields have shown limited improvement, with fluctuations across seasons and a modest decline in recent years. The report highlighted that at approximately 450 kg per hectare, India’s average cotton yield remains below the current global average of roughly 800 kg per hectare.
Given the pivotal role that cotton plays in India’s textile and apparel ecosystem, with more than 60% of our exports being cotton-based, it is, thus, vitally important that the cotton sector be made more resilient and globally competitive.
This calls for the development of an ecosystem which prioritises innovation, sustainability, better farm practices and a greater focus on quality and traceability, as that would ensure a win-win for farmers, industry, and consumers. More effectively leveraging technology, addressing structural challenges, and ramping up R&D can also make India’s cotton textile sector resilient to the challenges posed by climate change.
Some of the specific interventions necessary are:
- Ramping up innovation on the seeds front
- Improved pest and soil management
- Stepping up the act on irrigation and water efficiency
- Better capacity building and knowledge-sharing
- Boosting mechanisation.
How can the government’s cotton productivity mission help strengthen the textile value chain from farm to fibre?
The Mission for Cotton Productivity can provide tremendous momentum to India’s ambition of establishing a $350 billion textile and apparel industry by 2030, including $100 billion in exports by the end of this decade.
It will effectively address the dichotomy that exists in India’s cotton sector that undermines the country’s ability to become a more powerful force in the global textile and apparel arena. Despite being one of the largest cotton growers worldwide, India’s cotton productivity lags that of many of its peers, undermining the country’s ability to compete effectively on the export front. The bulk of India’s textile exports depends on cotton.
As the Hon’ble Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said in her FY26 Budget speech, while announcing the Mission for Cotton Productivity, that this 5-year initiative will facilitate significant improvements in the productivity and sustainability of cotton farming and promote extralong-staple cotton varieties. It will help increase farmers’ incomes and ensure a steady supply of quality cotton, so that India’s textile sector can become more globally competitive.
What role can Kasturi Cotton Bharat play in improving trust, traceability and quality perception of Indian cotton globally?
India’s aim to more than double textile and apparel exports to $100 billion by 2030 by leveraging Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) will significantly depend on the textile and apparel industry’s ability to move up the value chain and comply with evolving global ESG and traceability requirements.
Kasturi Cotton Bharat, a joint initiative of the Union Textiles Ministry, trade bodies and industry, can significantly contribute to the realisation of both these objectives.
Kasturi Cotton conforms to benchmarks that assure superior-quality cotton, thereby enhancing buyer confidence and their willingness to pay a premium. Kasturi Cotton has demonstrated increased fabric softness and durability, and improved colour vibrancy.
The use of blockchain technology across the value chain for verification and traceability provides additional comfort to prospective buyers and supports compliance with emerging sustainability and due diligence requirements. Even the end consumer can verify whether a product is made from Kasturi Cotton by scanning a QR code, which provides complete traceability across the production process.
By strengthening quality assurance, traceability and branding, Kasturi Cotton Bharat can, thus, help transform Indian cotton from a commodity into a branded, traceable and premium quality-assured product, creating value for farmers, industry and consumers alike.
What policy, pricing or procurement reforms are needed to encourage farmers to produce better-quality cotton?
At CITI, we have always maintained that the strength of India’s textile industry depends upon the prosperity of the farmer. When the farmer gains confidence and stability, the entire value chain becomes stronger. It is also our belief that the focus on quality and sustainability must start at the farm.
Currently, farmers often have very little incentive to focus on producing better-quality cotton because the economic rewards for doing so are limited. Many farmers feel that their efforts in adopting better farm practices are not adequately recognised or compensated. We, therefore, need policies that incentivise farmers to move up the quality ladder and produce superior-quality cotton.
Procurement systems should not be restricted to the Minimum Support Price (MSP) mechanism alone. While MSP remains an important safety net, quality parameters should also be incorporated so that farmers producing superior-quality cotton are appropriately rewarded through quality-linked premiums and scientific grading mechanisms.
Capacity-building initiatives should also be stepped up to help farmers adopt best practices, improve fibre quality, and meet the evolving requirements of the market.
How can industry bodies, research institutions and government agencies work together to improve cotton productivity and fibre quality?
It has always been CITI’s view that, given the opportunities and challenges faced by India’s cotton sector, all stakeholders – government, industry, research institutions, and most importantly the farming community – must work hand in hand. Each stakeholder category has a distinct responsibility, and it is only when these are effectively discharged that the larger goals for the sector can be realised. While policies are important, active buy-in from all stakeholders and effective implementation often determine success or failure on the ground.
The Special Project on Cotton under the National Food Security Mission (NFSM) of the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, which also involves the Union Textiles Ministry, the Cotton Corporation of India, ICAR-Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR), Nagpur, other research institutions, and industry members including CITI and CITI-CDRA, is a strong example of such convergence aimed at improving productivity and fibre outcomes.
Kasturi Cotton Bharat, a joint initiative of the Union Textiles Ministry, trade bodies and industry, is another important example of stakeholders working together to strengthen India’s cotton textile ecosystem.
Industry is also working closely with government and farmers through initiatives such as Kasturi Cotton Villages and Kasturi Cotton Mitras. Under the Kasturi Cotton Villages programme, select cotton-growing hubs are being “adopted” as model villages. These will serve as benchmarks for the Kasturi Cotton Bharat standard, focusing on certified seed adoption, improved agronomic and harvesting practices, and end-to-end traceability. The aim is to develop 3–5 model villages per district across India’s cotton belt, with the objective of demonstrating scalable improvements in productivity and fibre quality.
As part of the Kasturi Cotton Mitras initiative, trained field facilitators will be deployed to provide real-time, science-based handholding support to farmers for soil regeneration (using biochar), water management, and judicious fertiliser use, ensuring every harvest meets world-class specifications.