Business

India’s Cotton Production Drops By 10.51% In 2021-22

India’s cotton production in 2021-22 (Oct-Sep) season witnessed a drop of 10.51% to 315.43 lakh bales, compared to 352.48 lakh bales in 2020-21 season. Central zone remains the highest cotton producing zone. Growth-wise this time southern zone has done slightly better and perceived a growth, while the other two zones have registered a negative growth. As per the data state-wise, Gujarat remains the topmost state with a production of 75.57 lakh bales. Maharashtra too remains as the second largest with a production of 71.18 lakh bales of cotton. Tamil Nadu is the lowest cotton producing state with just 2.80 lakh bales of cotton. Northern Zone Lesser area under cotton along with damage to the crop by rains and whitefly pest attack are being seen as the main reasons behind the expected decline in the overall yield in the northern zone. Area under cotton cultivation in this zone reduced by 8.39% to 16.48 lakh hectares in 2021-22. The zone’s cotton production declined by 26.52% to 44.48 lakh bales, a share of 14% in the total cotton production of India. The productivity of cotton declined by 19.78% to 458.83 kgs per hectare. All the cotton growing states in the north zone have witnessed a declined growth in 2021-22 cotton season. Rajasthan remains the topmost cotton growing state in the zone. Cotton production in Rajasthan dropped by 22.64% to 24.81 lakh bales, accounting for around 56% in the zone and 8% in the total cotton production of India. In Rajasthan, the area under cultivation of cotton too dropped by 6.32% to 7.56 lakh hectares. The state’s cotton yield dropped by 17.42% to 557.90 kgs per hectare in 2020-21 season over the previous season. Haryana’s cotton production declined by 27.81% to 13.16 lakh bales of cotton. The state stakes a share of 30% in the zone and 4% in the total cotton production of India. Area under cultivation declined by 14.05% to 6.36 lakh hectare. The productivity growth too declined by 16.01% to 351.76 kgs per hectare in 2021-22 over the previous season. Punjab’s cotton production declined by 36.36% to 6.51 lakh bales of cotton in 2021-22 season over the previous season. The state stakes a share of 15% in the zone and 2% in the total cotton production of India. Punjab is the only state that has witnessed an increase in the cotton cultivation area by 1.59% to 2.56 lakh hectare. The state cotton yield dropped by 37.36% to 432.30 kgs per hectare in 2021-22 over the previous season where the state’s yield was 690.12 kgs per hectare. Central Zone Central zone accounts for the highest share of 51% of the total cotton production of India. In the last season (2021-22), the zone’s production totalled to 161.02 lakh bales of cotton and witnessed a drop of 13.71%. over the previous year. The cultivation area for cotton too dropped by 8.63% to 67.63 lakh hectares, which as directly affected the crop’s yield by -5.56%. Gujarat is the highest cotton producing state in the zone as well as in the country. In the last season 2021-22, the state cotton production increased by 4.70% to 75.57 lakh bales of cotton over the previous season. The state stakes 47% share in the zone and 24% of the total cotton production of India. The cotton cultivation area in Gujarat dropped marginally by 1.06% and gave a yield of 571.99 kgs per hectare with a growth of 5.82%. Maharashtra, being the second largest producing state in the country and central zone, has perceived a drastic drop in cotton production. Maharashtra is the only state in the zone to witness a drop. The state registered a production of 71.18 lakh bales of cotton with decline of 29.56% in 2021-22 over the previous year. The state stakes 44% in the zone and 23% in the total cotton production of India. Maharashtra’s cultivation area for cotton declined by 12.98% to 39.54 lakh hectares, giving it a yield of 306.03 kgs per hectare. Yes, the cotton yield too dropped by 19.05%. Growth-wise, Madhya Pradesh has performed the best in the zone. The production in the state increased by 6.65% to 14.27 lakh bales of cotton. The state holds a share of 9% in the zone and 5% in the total cotton production of India. In Madhya Pradesh, the cotton cultivated area dropped by 4.25% to 5.63 lakh hectare. Here the productivity has dropped by 5.56% to 404.75 kgs per hectare. Southern Zone The southern zone is the second highest zone in the production of cotton and only zone to perceive a growth in 2021-22 season. The zone’s cotton production totalled to 103.95 lakh bales of cotton with a growth of 4.37%. The zone stakes a share of 33% in the total cotton production of India and registered a yield of 514.90 kgs per hectare in 2021-22 with a growth of 18.48%. Telangana is the highest cotton producing state in the region. The state produced 66.45 lakh bales of cotton in 2021-22 season, 14.63% higher than the previous season. Around 64% of the production of cotton in the zone is cultivated by Telangana, while state shares 21% in the total production of cotton. While the cultivated area for cotton in the state dropped by 12.26% to 20.69 lakh hectares, the yield increased by 30.64% to 545.99 kgs per hectare. Andhra Pradesh which stakes 15% in the zone and 5% of India’s total production of cotton has witnessed a drop of 5.13% in the last season of cotton. The cotton production in the state totalled to 15.18 lakh bales of cotton. The area of cultivation in the state dropped by 9.57% to 5.48 lakh hectare. Though area of cotton cultivation and production of cotton have dropped, the state productivity has improved by 4.92% to 470.91 kgs/hectare in 2021-22 over the previous season. Karnataka is the second largest state in the zone. Cotton production in the state dropped by 15.86% to 19.52 lakh bales of cotton and accounts for a share of 19% in the zone and 6% of India’s total cotton production. The area of cultivation in Karnataka dropped by 17.44% to 6.77 lakh hectare, but the productivity yield registered a growth of 1.91% to 490.16 kgs/hectare. Tamil Nadu is the lowest cotton producing state in the region. The state produced 2.80 lakh of cotton in 2021-22 cotton season and witnessed a growth of 15.23%. Tamil Nadu accounts for a share of 3% in the zone and 1% in the total cotton production of India. The area of cotton cultivation in Tamil Nadu increased by 23.21% to 1.38 lakh hectare, but the productivity decreased by 6.48% with a yield of 344.93 kgs/hectare. Orissa’s cotton production in 2021-22 increased by 3.45% to 5.70 lakh bales of cotton. Orissa is the only state which is not categorized into any zone. The state stakes 2% share in the total cotton production of India. Orissa’s cotton cultivated area witnessed a rise of 12.87% to 1.93 lakh hectare, while the productivity of cotton fell by 8.34% to 502.07 kgs/hectare. India’s Cotton Exports India’s cotton exports have dropped by 4.05% in the first seven months (Jan-Jul) of 2022 totaling to US$ 5250.69 million compared to the corresponding period of last year (CPLY). India’s cotton fibre export volumes dropped by 51.43% to 459.52 million kgs in Jan-Jul 2022 compared to the corresponding period of last year (CPLY). This cotton fibre volumes gained a value of US$ 1259.58 million, with a drop of 28.18%. Cotton yarn exports in Jan- Jul 2022 had marginally increased. India’s cotton yarn exports increased by 0.63% to US$ 2519.82 million. But the export volumes dropped by 25% to 537.89 million kgs of cotton yarn. India’s cotton fabric exports increased by 21.11 % to 1471.29 million in Jan-Jul 2022 compared to CPLY. Cotton Fabric exports volumes witnessed a growth of 5.78% to 13080.38 million sq.m in 2022 (Jan-Jul). The UVR’s for this commodity was US$ 11.25 per sq.m for cotton fabric in Jan-Jul 2022, while in the CPLY it was US$ 9.82 per sq.m Bangladesh remains the top export market for Indian cotton. Cotton exports to Bangladesh increased by 33.84% to US$ 2436.84 million in 2022 (Jan-Jul). In the Indian cotton market, export to China witnessed a major drop of 89.02% to US$ 128.61 million in 2022 (Jan – Jul) over the CPLY where the exports totalled to US$ 1171.81 million. From being the second largest market, the country now stands as the fifth largest. Demands from Vietnam have also dropped. The cotton exports to Vietnam in Jan-Jul 2022 totalled to US$ 215.22 million with a drop of 35.82%. Vietnam is now the second largest market for India cotton. Cotton Prices and MSP Cotton prices in India have started to decline at the end of this season. On 22th September 2022, Shankar 6 cotton was priced at Rs 207 per kg, which recorded a decline of 15% in a week’s time and 28% down from their peak of Rs 288 per kg in May 2022. As per industry estimates, if the cotton crop conditions across all the cotton growing states remains stable without any impact of heavy rainfall in October or further pest attack, it is expected that India would produce more than 360 lakh bales of cotton in coming season (2022-23). Rising production and yield of cotton would further soften the Indian cotton prices and would benefit the Indian cotton textile and clothing industry. Indian cotton T&C exporters would witness improved global competitiveness, as US and Pakistan cotton production has been impacted by the unfavourable climatic conditions. The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India has fixed the support price of two varieties of cotton i.e. medium staple cotton having a length of 24.5 to 25.5 mm has been priced at Rs 6080 per quintal. And for long staple cotton having a length of 29.5 to 30.5 mm on an average is prices at Rs 6380 per quintal, in the previous season this variety of cotton was priced at Rs 6025 per quintal.