Indian Minister of Textiles Piyush Goyal held the sixth interactive meeting with the Textile Advisory Group (TAG) to review the progress of initiatives for the cotton value chain in Rajkot, Gujarat. The meeting aimed to enhance the value returns to producers by focusing on the cotton value chain.
Goyal praised the project on traceability, certification, and branding of Kasturi Cotton India and noted that branding of Indian cotton will add great value to the entire cotton value chain from farmers to end-users. He emphasised the need for strengthening certification systems for organic cotton and requested industry participation in promoting organic cotton production amongst cotton farmers.
He also advised forming a working group of experts, representative from industry, respective ministries, and other stakeholders to have a detailed plan of action to boost organic cotton production on a cluster-based approach, the Indian Ministry of textiles said.
Additionally, the final approval for a holistic plan to enhance cotton productivity with an amount of Rs. 4,186.85 lakh was obtained from ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare under National Food Security Mission (NFSM), and cluster-wise identification of villages/farmers has been finalised in Rajasthan and is in progress in all remaining cotton growing states.
Minister of state for textiles and railways, Darshana V Jardosh, and TAG chairman, Suresh Kotak, also guided the TAG meeting. Representatives from the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare, Competition Commission of India (CCI), Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), other senior officials from related ministries, and stakeholders from the entire cotton value chain were present during the meeting.
The meeting highlighted the need for a cohesive effort to achieve the PM’s dream of five Fs from farm to foreign in the cotton textile value chain and regain supremacy in cotton, the report added.
