Mumbai | 30 May 2022
Union Minister for Commerce & Industry and Textiles Shri Piyush Goyal held an interactive meeting with the newly constituted Textile Advisory Group at Indian Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Mumbai on Sunday. The focus of the meeting was on addressing issues relating to augmenting supply of cotton and scaling up productivity.
The Textile Advisory Group comprises Senior Officials from the Union Ministries of Textiles, Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Commerce, Senior Officials from the Cotton Corporation of India, R&D experts and stakeholders.
The Minister stressed upon addressing the factors affecting productivity to be tackled in time bound manner in a project mode. He also urged the industry to develop models for improving Ginning efficiency and outturn.
Shri Goyal further said “accurate statistics across the textile value chain help better policy formulation, trade facilitation and traceability”. In this regard, he directed that a portal be created with inputs of Cotton Association, Ginners as well as Confederation of Indian Textile Industry & the Southern India Mills’ Association. “The portal should work on self compliance mode. If persuasion and self-compliance do not yield results then disincentives may be built in the system like Cotton Corporation of India not doing any business with such defaulters”, he added.
The Minister also emphasized on the need to protect cotton crop from pink bollworm attack. He suggested that everyone should be sensitized for compulsory use of Pheromone Trap Technology used for preventing reproduction of next generation of pests. “The Ginning segment should take responsibility and make Pheromone Trap Technology mandatory to monitor and prevent spread of Pink Bollworm pest attack to save the crop” he added.
The core issue of Seed quality was deliberated in detail with focus on dedicated action for the current season. Renowned cotton expert and Chairman of the Textile Advisory Group Shri Suresh Kotak particularly stressed the need to ensure timely availability of seeds for sowing, particularly of early maturing varieties.
Shri Goyal emphasized the need for carrying out awareness campaigns in farming areas to educate farmers on distinguishing right seeds from spurious ones.
The Meeting was jointly organized by the Office of Textile Commissioner, Mumbai and Cotton Corporation of India, Navi Mumbai
(Source | PIB Del / 001 MD/PM)
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