A section of players in the cotton economy from Mumbai and Vadodara (in Gujarat) assembled on Friday at Vadodara's posh locale of Holiday Inn, to supposedly discuss various critical issues that progressively have pushed the domestic cotton economy in a crisis mode over the years.

Towards the end of the five hours of discussion on the subject by the bigwigs of the East India Cotton Association (EICA), and The Central Gujarat Cotton Dealers Association, what emerged was a picture which appeared to be moving in pieces, rather disjointedly, towards the common goalHowever, the seminar was laced with handful of demands from the Government, including creation of a `cotton development fund', in the next budget, that "would be WTO compatible" in the words of chief guest Yogendra Alagh, professor emeritus, Sardar Patel Institute of Economic Development, Ahmedabad. Mr Alagh was a former minister of state of the Government of India.

Well, present at the one-day seminar were Textiles Commissioner BC Khatua, Dr S Sreenivasan, Director, Central Institute for Research on Cotton Technology (CIRCOT), MB Lall, former chairman of Cotton Corporation of India (CCI), Sanat Mehta, former finance minister of Gujarat (and proponent of cotton and onions among others), Vinod Shah president of The Central Gujarat Cotton Dealers' Association, EICA president and vice president Suresh Kotak and KF Jhunjhunwalla, COTAPP chairman trustee CH Mirani, the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) director DS Kolamkar and among others Mr Kantibhai Ram, chairman GUJCOT and Uttar Gujarat Cooperative Sales Federation.

All that these big men in the cotton economy, lamented about the fact that India was being increasingly pushed out the world's cotton arena, overtaken by Pakistan, China, Turkey, USA and of course Egypt. The solution to bring Indian cotton on the world map?... Well, there were different answers that lacked a concerted thrust.

Said one of the speakers on the sidelines of the seminar ``There are too many pearls of wisdom available, but what is missing is the common thread that will put all these together for a stronger cotton economy''. According to Mr Alagh, the Centre needs to create a WTO-compatible fund that will help the farmers of the country, including cotton farmers.

The fund can be set up by contributions from other countries and therefore, will be WTO compatible... majority of the cotton growing nations like USA, China and even Europe extends indirect support to their farmers, so we need not worry on this count. ``We are prepared to take initiatives in the direction of setting up of the WTO compatible fund, it is the Government which will have to support with positive policies.''

Further, Mr Alagh said, given the tangle within the bureaucracy - the agriculture ministry wants to control the cooperatives and does not want to loosen its grip over them, in allowing them to be partially corporatised.

Then the department of company affairs will have control over them - the strengthening of cooperatives and bringing them to the fore of the country's agri-sector remains unattended. ``Surprisingly'', Mr Alagh said, ``under the Constitution, even when agriculture continues to be a state subject and it is the states who are expected to give direction and boost to the sector, it is the Central Government which signs various agreements, related to agriculture in the WTO on behalf of the Indian States.

But majority of the state governments simply do not have any clue, as to what the impact of the WTO-goaded global agri-trade will have on their own agri-economy''. And it is equally true of the cotton economy as well.

According to the textiles commissioner ``We need to better the hopeless image of Indian cotton, by creating an image of top class Indian cotton that meets a set of parameters, which may be outlined by EICA jointly with the growers, traders and the user community. Necessary help from the TC's office will be available as and when required''.

The use of top class registered seeds, best cotton plucking and post-harvest cotton handling practices, highly improved ginning facilities among others will help in building up the necessary image of top class of India cotton.

``However, in order to sustain this image, a mandatory audit also must be done every 6-8 months, to convince the buyers of high quality standards of Indian cotton. If implemented, this practice of branding Indian cotton will yield good results over the next 3-5 years''.

Dr S Sreenivasan of CIRCOT said ``Thanks to reserach and development efforts in cotton improvement, India can take pride in being the only country growing a wide spectrum of quality cottons, right from the shortest and coarsest capable of spinning 6s to the longest and finest used for producing 120s yarns''.