Minister of State for Agriculture, Trade Minister, and managing director of Sambandam Spinning Mills discusses yield decline, stock sales, and colored cotton.

More than 90% of the total area under cotton cultivation in India is currently Bt cotton, but yields started mysteriously declining in 2011 according to the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing, Charan Das Mahant.

India's average Bt cotton yield was 1100 lbs. per hectare and 1082 lbs. per hectare in 2010-11 and 2011-12, respectively according to Mahant. The yield for 2012-13, though, is estimated to decline further to 1076 lbs. per hectare, he said. The reason for the decline remains unclear.

Cotton production, though, is still up from the 2007-08 levels of 1030 lbs per hectare and is satisfactory enough to meet the domestic and export demands.

Furthermore, Trade Minister Anand Sharma commented on whether or not the Cotton Corporation of India would sell stocks to the open market, saying, "That will happen."

The Confederation of Indian Textile Industries predicted that India will sell cotton from stocks of 2.5 billion bales (425,000 tonnes) out of a crop expected to total 33 million bales. Domestic mills, according to S. Dinakaran, joint managing director of Sambandam Spinning Mills, normally use about 26 million to 27 million bales. "This move will support the industry and stabilize prices, restricting any further rise," he said, predicting a drop in spot prices for the most commonly traded Shankar-6 variety.

Mahant also said that although both the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, cotton research centers, and Jabalpur-based Jawaharlal Nehru Agriculture Institute have undertaken research regarding the growth of colored cotton, yield remained limited to 110 lbs per hectare.

Sources: Fibre2Fashion, Reuters