Why India’s falling cotton production is a worry

Context: The pink bollworm (PWB) has taken a toll on the fiber crop (cotton), even as new “mating disruption” technologies to control the pest are showing promise.

About Mating Disruptions Technology:

• Mating disruption involves the use of sex pheromones to prevent male insects finding females and mating.
• Pheromones are chemicals produced by an insect to communicate in some way with others of the same species.

Distribution and Cotton Production In India:

• Economic importance: Cotton is cultivated primarily for lint while seed and its by-products have also gained commercial importance in recent times.
• Cotton composition: Lint or fiber: 35-45% ,Seed: 55-65% Seed ,oil: 10-12% , Meal and Hull: 35-40% 
• Climate and cultivation:
  • Cotton is a tropical and subtropical crop
  • Crop cycle: 4-5 MonthsOptimum temperature: 21C to 28 C 
  • Rainfall: Moderate, 50-75 cm mm 
  • Sunny days are important at all stages of growth, particularly during flowering and maturity stages.
  • Soil: Black Soil (Regur Soil).
  • Crop Seasons: Kharif.

The Bt revolution: Between 2000-01 and 2013-14, India’s cotton production, in terms of lint, almost tripled from 140 lakh to 398 lakh bales (170 kg). 

• Today Bt cotton Occupies 95%  cotton cultivated areas, average per-hectare lint yields more than doubled from 278 kg in 2000-01 to 566 kg in 2013-14. However, the gains didn’t last. 
• The charts show both production and yields falling after 2013-14, to 343.5 lakh bales and 447 kg/hectare in 2022-23.

Source: The Indian Express