Time for India to adopt Global Best Standards in Cotton Productivity: Piyush Goyal
All stakeholders must come together
in mission mode for holistic growth of cotton textiles value chain in India to
achieve 5 Fs ‘Farm to Foreign’ vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister: Piyush Goyal
Private sector must also come forward and contribute to boost research in
productivity, farmers education as well as branding - Goyal
To support quality, all testing facilities to be provided from Farm to Industry
: Goyal
Growth of cotton production and productivity vital to employment growth in
Country: Narendra Singh Tomar
Short term and long term strategies to be worked out for boosting productivity
– Tomar
An interactive
meeting with stakeholders of Cotton Textile Value Chain on improving cotton
productivity & branding of Indian Cotton was held at Vanijya Bhawan New
Delhi, today in the august presence of Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of
Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce
& Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textiles
and Darshana V Jardosh, Minister of State for Textiles & Railways.
Piyush
Goyal , Union Minister for Commerce & Industry , Textiles , Consumer Affairs
and Food & Public Distribution said that its time for India to adopt world
standards in Cotton Productivity. He also said that all stakeholders must
share best practices to boost cotton productivity in India to boost farmer
incomes.
Speaking on the occasion Goyal said that Private
sector must contribute to boost research in productivity, farmers’ education as
well as branding to which Government would provide matching support. Asserting
integrated approach, the minister said that private sector has to act in a mission
mode to strengthen the Cotton Value Chain. He further added that we need to
brand our own cotton which is good quality by equal contribution from Industry.
Action has to be taken on reducing contamination issues like coloured HDPE.
Master plan has to be worked out by industry within one week.
Goyal said that cotton works like a bridge between
agriculture and textile sector. Cotton-based products have significant
share of total Textiles & Apparel products both at domestic and
international level. With Market access opening through FTAs, it is but
imperative to get our act together to enhance Productivity and Quality both. He
added that the country needs to bring back dominance in the global
cotton industry and India looks at Textiles
as a key sector that will help
us build an “Aatmanirbhar Bharat”. He also said that Centre
is working on ‘5F’ vision of PM: “Farm
to Fibre; Fibre to Factory; Factory to Fashion; Fashion to
Foreign’ . It may be noted that Textile sector has taken giant strides from
RoSCTL to RoDTEP & NTTM to PM Mitra for increasing cotton
and textiles production in India . Agreements for duty free
access of Textiles with Australia &
UAE have given a new impetus to the trade and similar
agreements with EU, UK & Canada are being negotiated.
Textile Minister also said that it was vital to increase yield
and profit margins for our cotton farmers by creating awareness about
right seeds and encouraging farmers to adopt modern technology and progressive
agricultural practices. Appreciating the examples of good work done by some
FPOs, CITI, CDRA etc, he expects replication to achieve better results across
the board.
Speaking at the meeting, Narendra Tomar, Union Minister
for Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare said that Growth of Cotton Production and
Productivity is vital to employment growth in country. He said that short term
and long term strategies are needed for boosting productivity. Tomar addded
that High Density farming and micro irrigation are key to boosting cotton
productivity in large parts of the nation.
In first of its kind meeting at the level of Union
Ministers of Agriculture and Textiles both, core issues pertaining to cotton
value chain were deliberated at length with outcome oriented targets assigned
to Industry Captains and government functionaries alike. Upendra Prasad Singh,
Secretary Textiles, Vijoy Kumar Singh, Special Secretary, senior officials from
the Union Ministries of Textiles, Agriculture & Farmer’s Welfare, Commerce,
Environment, Forest and Climate Change, officials from Research and Development
sector, senior Officials from corporations, farmers, seed industry and
stakeholders were present. The whole textile value chain was represented in the
consultations through lead associations and experts in the meeting.