Cotton is a major cash crop in India. As a raw material for the textile industry, cotton contributes significantly to the agricultural and industrial economics of India and exerts considerable influence on India's economy.
Cotton accounts for more than 75 per cent of the annual fibre consumption in the spinning mills in India and about 58 per cent of total fibre consumption in the Textile Sector in India.
It engages millions of farmers, while another about 60 million people depend on activities relating to cotton cultivation, cotton trade and its processing for their livelihood.
India is the only country in the world that grows not only the four cultivated species of cotton but also their intra-and-inter-specific hybrids on a commercial scale.
Though the number of varieties in cotton cultivation exceeds seventy-five, nearly 98 per cent of the production is contributed by about twenty-five varieties only.
Thus, cotton is the principal raw material for domestic textile industry comprising of 1603 spinning mills and 208 composite mills with an installed capacity of 35.36 million spindles (Spinning + Composite), 0.43 million open-End rotors (Spinning + Composite) and 0.091 million Looms (composite + Weaving) in the organized sector plus another 1196 small scale spinning units with 3.86 million spindles plus 0.15 million rotors as on 31st July 2006.
The Textile Industry of which the cotton is the predominant raw material contribute about 4 per cent to the GDP of the country and is the largest foreign exchange earner for the country.
Hence, growth and development of cotton and cotton industry has a vital bearing on the overall development of the Indian economy.
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International Cotton Advisory Committee
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