Ahmedabad, DeshGujarat

According to India’s Cotton Advisory Board (CAB) estimates, Gujarat has emerged as the leader in India’s total cotton production with 11.2 million bales(1 bale = 170 kg) production followed by Maharashtra (6.2 mn bales), Andhra Pradesh (4.6 mn bales) and Punjab (2.2 mn bales) in year 2008.

Gujarat has left far behind all the other states. Gujarat has seen cotton production continuously go up from 3.5 million bales to 8.9 million bales between 2002-03 and 2005-06 to 10 million bales in 2006-07.

Industry experts here say that Gujarat, the largest cotton producer, is witnessing a resurgence of interest among textile players because of easy access to raw material at reduced freight. Two more major textile projects envisaging an investment of more than Rs.10.5 billion ($250 million) are coming up at Jhagadia in central Gujarat.

According to Cotton Advisory Board (CAB) estimates, India`s cotton production in 2007-08 has jumped by 12.5 % at 31.5 million bales (1 bale = 170 kg) as compared to 28 million bales in previous year. Gujarat has contributed 35% of this production.

The total acreage under cotton in India increased to 9.55 million hectares compared with 9.14 million hectares in 2006-07, up 4.5%. Gujarat has 57 lakh acres land(nearly 25 lakh hectares) under cotton. This means Gujarat’s part in nation’s total land under cotton is merely a 3.82% but part in India’s total cotton production is 35%. This proves very high productivity of cotton in Gujarat.

Production of Cotton is concentrated in the districts of Surendranagar, Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Broach, Mehsana, and Bhavnagar in Gujarat.

Gujarat’s cotton is famous in China and western nations as Gujarat cotton. Gujarat has huge share in India’s total cotton export(exact figures are not available).