The Cotton Corp. has been asked to identify one district in each state for conducting cotton productivity trials, Union Minister Giriraj Singh said on Monday.
Speaking to reporters in the capital, the textiles minister said the government is intensifying efforts to boost cotton productivity by adopting global best practices, to increase the per hectare yield, as countries including Brazil, China, Australia and Russia produce 2,000 to 2,200 kg per hectare whereas India's average production is 450-500 kg per hectare.
"I have told CCI to identify districts across states for cotton trial production. Now we will take Akola model to saturation mode," Singh said.
Moreover, he shared plans to take India's textiles market size to $350 billion by 2030 from $176 billion at present.
"The country's textile sector is the biggest employment creator after agriculture. We have set a target to take it (number of textile jobs) to 6 crore from 4.5 crore at present. The textile sector has got an allocation of Rs 5,300 crore in the Budget .... In the coming days we will increase job creation and exports from the textiles sector. At present the domestic market size is $ 76 billion. We will increase this to $350 billion," said the minister.
Talking about the mega textile exhibition Bharat Tex to be held this month, he said, around 6,000 foreign exhibitors from 126 nations will participate in the event this time, doubling from 3,000 last year.
The minister also exuded confidence that Carbon fibre, a technical textile used in missiles, drones, etc., will be produced in India by 2026.
Union Budget 2025-26 proposes a five-year Cotton Mission to increase cotton productivity especially of extra-long staple varieties. It allocated Rs 500 crore for the National Cotton Technology Mission.
The Budget announced an outlay of Rs 5,272 crore (Budget Estimates) for Ministry of Textiles for 2025-26. This is an increase of 19% over budget Estimates of 2024-25 (Rs 4,417.03 crore).
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