The Centre and the textile ministry are taking efforts to reduce contamination in cotton for the benefit of the textile industry, according to a senior official of the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI). This was in response to concerns expressed by stakeholders in the cotton and textile industry over the contamination in cotton and lower yield in India compared to other countries.

CCI Chairman and Managing Director P Alli Rani, in her address to the two-day 4th All India Cotton conference here last night, noted that though India was the largest producer, the 'trash level' in the raw material affected end users.

As a first step to check contamination in cotton, Bureau of Indian Standards would work out a system for traceability of cotton arriving as bales from ginning factories, she said. By doing this, the Government would be able to know the source of contamination and take preventive measures, she said.

Apart from this, once the second phase of the Technology Mission on Cotton, as proposed by the textile ministry, was approved, the problem of contamination could automatically be solved, the official said.

Kotak Commodities Chairman Suresh Kotak who spoke on 'India Cotton Scenario in the Current Context 2018-19' at the conference, said both the cotton trade and industry should join hands to remove contamination, which was affecting the economy and take efforts to create 'clean cotton and truthful cotton.'

The conference was jointly organised by Indian Cotton Federation here and Indian Cotton Association, Bathinda.

Kotak also opined that the industry should take efforts to increase cotton yield and productivity, which was 550 kg per hectare compared to 1,200 to 1,500 kg in other cotton growing countries.

Tamil Nadu being a major cotton consumer with nearly 45 per cent textile millsNSE -1.09 %, CCI should open a depot in the state either in Madurai or Coimbatore, Deputy Chairman of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, T Rajkumar said.