Indian Cotton Still At Record Levels

Avatar for Matt Hopkins By Scott C. Lucas|19 May 2006

The expected 24 million bale 2006/07 cotton harvest in India would be the second-best on record, just a shade below India’s best-ever harvest of 24.3 million bales set in 2004/05, and the fourth consecutive cotton bumper crop in the country. Expected increases in planted area are the main reason for the strong showing, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agriculture Service (USDA-FAS).

Cotton planting is forecast to increase to 9.0 million hectares (Ha) on strong cotton prices and good yields during the current season. Production of extra long staple (ELS) cotton is forecast to rebound to 200,000 170-kilogram bales on higher plantings of DCH 32 (the local ELS variety), due to record high prices in the current season.

Bacillus thuringiensis(Bt) cotton planting in 2006/07 is expected to jump nearly threefold to 4.2 million Ha to account for almost half of the expected cotton area. Recently, the government of India approved 20 new Bt varieties for commercial cultivation. The new approvals include two varieties that include a Bt gene developed by a local university and two varieties with a Bt gene sourced from China. The other varieties have the Bt (Cry1Ac) gene developed by Monsanto that was approved in 2002/03.