Monsoon deficit and the resultant marginal reduction in sowing area may reduce the cotton production in India for the 2023-24 season to 29.5 million bales (a bale is 170 kg) against last year’s production of 31.9 million bales, according to data released by the Cotton Association of India.
The first estimation of cotton production by CAI was released by its President Atul Ganatra on Tuesday in Hyderabad. According to Ganatra, “The main reason for this reduction in production is the occurrence of El Nino year and the reduction in total cotton sowing across the country. There has been a 5.5% reduction in total sowing throughout the country against the area under cotton crop previous year.”
Ganatra said, “The unfavourable weather conditions due to the geographical phenomenon will impact the production quantities across all the cotton producing states. These weather abnormalities can cause a production loss of around 5% to 20% for various states.”
According to the estimates, the central zone, the largest cotton producer zone, will register a production of 17.96 million bales while the south zone will have a production of 6.75 million bales of 170 kg each. Gujarat and Maharashtra are expected to be the largest cotton producing states. For the cotton season 2023-24, Gujarat and Maharashtra will produce 8.5 million bales and 7.66 million bales against the production of 9.44 millon bales and 8.07 million bales for the season 2022-23.