The consistently high cotton prices in India in 2016-17, and which is still continuing in this financial year, will encourage Indian farmers to grow more this year.
Browsing: cotton bales
Farmers and agriculture experts in Punjab are expecting a major increase in the area under cotton cultivation this season. The Punjab Agriculture Department has set a target of 4 lakh hectares to be brought under cotton cultivation in eight districts of the Malwa belt.
Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has developed two varieties of BT cotton whose plant’s seed can be used in the next season and has become the first agriculture institute to develop reusable seeds.
Textile mills have started to import cotton from West Africa and the US as the landed costs are on par with the prevailing market price in the country.
Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana has announced that it has developed country’s first genetically-modified (Bt) varieties of cotton  the seeds of which could be reused by farmers, resulting in saving the repeated cost they have to bear every season.
India’s cotton yield has received a boost as 6.6 lakh bales (each weighing 140 kg) of cotton have been procured so far surpassing last year’s production figures of 6.5 lakh bales.
India is estimated to consume 29.5 million bales of cotton (170 kg each), this season ending this September. Within one month of its recent estimate, Mumbai-based Cotton Association of India (CAI) has revised the estimate of India’s cotton consumption and import numbers.