Area under Cotton Cultivation and Production Showing Rising Trend

The area under cotton cultivation as well as total cotton production in the country has been showing an increasing trend for the past few years.  The percentage share of Bt. cotton in the overall area coverage is on the rise and since the total production of cotton is also showing an increasing trend, the production of Bt. cotton cannot be estimated to be low. 

            The table below shows the figures of increasing trend of area, production and percentage share of Bt. cotton:

Year	Area (in lakh ha)		% age share of Bt. cotton to total cotton	Total Cotton production (in lakh bales)
	Bt cotton	Total cotton in 9 Bt. cotton States
2006-07	33.52	90.55	37.03%	226.32
2007-08	54.72	94.23	58.07%	258.84
2008-09	66.69	92.04	75.80%	222.76
2009-10	85.52	101.15	84.40%	240.22
2010-11	93.36	110.56	84.45%	330.00

 The productivity of Bt. Cotton has been fluctuating over the past few years, due to various factors responsible for production and productivity such as availability of water (i.e., monsoon rainwater, tube well water, canal water) at the time of sowing, agro-climatic conditions both at the time of sowing as also during the growth period, natural calamities like flood and incidences of high temperature, biotic stresses etc. There are State wise and region wise variations in productivity of cotton which arise due to different level of irrigation facilities available, irrigation coverage and agronomic practices followed.    The productivity in the year 2007-08 was 467 Kg/ha and as per Third Advance Estimates, the productivity in 2011-12 has been estimated to be 491 Kg/ha. 

            This information was given by Shri Harish Rawat, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries in written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.