"India Should Follow Global Cotton Production Standards to Boost Output," Piyush Goyal

The Union Commerce Minister, Piyush Goyal met with cotton textile value chain stakeholders on cotton production, pricing, and testing on Sunday (24 July), during which strategies to increase output and productivity of contamination-free cotton to assist farmers were reviewed.

Minister of Agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar also attended the conference.

Various ministries attended the conference to ensure optimal collaboration. Tomar stated, "Today's meeting of the agricultural and textile ministries, as well as several other departments, was successful. We heard from cotton farmers and the cotton industry as a whole. We've made several moves that will assist enhance cotton output."

Goyal stated that it is time for India to follow global cotton production standards and that all stakeholders must share best practices to increase output. He further stated that the Centre is focusing on PM Narendra Modi's '5F' vision of 'Farm to Fibre; Fibre to Factory; Factory to Fashion; Fashion to Foreign.'

Goyal suggested that farmers' earnings may be doubled by combining the 5 Fs and that farmers should also be provided with irrigation facilities.

"The private sector must contribute to enhancing productivity research, farmer education, and branding, to which the government will match," he added.

We need to trademark our own high-quality cotton with equal input from the industry. "We heard the views of cotton-growing farmers and the cotton industry at large," Agriculture Minister Tomar stated during the meeting.

We've made several measures that will assist enhance cotton output. Cotton output and productivity increase are critical to the country's employment growth."

Core concerns relevant to the cotton value chain were discussed in the detail in a first-of-its-kind conference at the level of Union Ministers of Agriculture and Textiles, with outcome-oriented goals issued to industry captains and government functionaries alike.