Indian Textiles Minister K Sambasiva Rao has said that a roadmap should be drawn up by the country’s cotton industry to support the agricultural sector to double cotton production in the short-term.



The Minister expressed his views during an interactive session with stakeholders of the cotton value chain, comprising of Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) and South India Mills Association (SIMA), recently in New Delhi.



Mr. Rao urged the industry to work with Central Institute of Cotton Research (CICR) and to come up with a viable proposal to develop improved variety of traditional seeds and other farm practices which have been successfully tried in some countries with spectacular results in areas of productivity and disease resistance.



Industry representatives requested the Government to make the working capital available to textile mills at easier terms for procurement of cotton, during the peak arrival seasons in order to stabilize the prices, which will also avoid the need for Minimum Support Price (MSP) operation.



The stakeholders of the cotton value chain stressed on the need for a stable and transparent policy in cotton distribution, and felt that the Government should reintroduce the intervention under the erstwhile Technology Mission on Cotton (TMC) for improving the market yards and ginning and pressing mills.



The new cotton marketing season in India will begin from October 1, 2013.



India produced an estimated 35.3 million bales (1 bale = 170 kg) of cotton in 2012-13 season, according to Cotton Advisory Board (CAB).