India is likely to produce 34.5 million bales of cotton in the 2015/16 season that started on Oct. 1, down 2.3 percent from an earlier estimate, a leading trade body said in a statement on Wednesday.

The world's biggest cotton producer had harvested 38.3 million bales in the previous season.

In October to February, spot markets in the country received 24.5 million cotton bales, down 11.3 percent compared to the same period a year ago, Cotton Association of India said.

Trade bodies are consistently reducing cotton production estimates for the current season as pest attack and the first back-to-back drought in nearly three decades curtailed per-hectare yields.

(1 Indian bale = 170 kg) (Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Sunil Nair)