October 7: World Cotton Day

On October 7, 2020, the second World Cotton Day was celebrated. The initiative was first hosted by Cotton-4, World Trade Organization, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and International Trade Centre.

The event is led by WTO on the request of C4 countries

World Trade Organization

Cotton is discussed on two following tracks

• Trade reforms required to address subsidies and high trade barriers for cotton
• Assistance provided to cotton sector in developing countries

These tracks were developed in response to series of proposals tabled by Cotton-4 or C4 countries. The C4 countries are Burkina Faso, Benin, Chad and Mali.

India launches Kasturi Cotton

On the second World Cotton Day, India launched its first brand called “Kasturi Cotton”. The brand will represent brightness, whiteness, softness, luster, purity and uniqueness. India produces 6 million tonnes of cotton every year. This is about 23% of world cotton. Also, 51% of world organic cotton is produced in India. This demonstrates efforts of India towards sustainability.

India had also developed the mobile application called “Cott-Ally”. The application was developed Cotton Corporation of India to provide latest news regarding weather conditions, farm practices and crop situation.

Grades of Cotton in India

SUVIN is the highest grade of Indian Cotton. It is produced in Tamil Nadu. It is the finest quality Extra Long Staple cotton that has high fibre strength. Natural colour cotton fibres are produced in the state of Karnataka. The state produces different colours such as green, brown and cream colours.

COTTON TAP Programme

India implemented Cotton Technical Assistance Programme called COTTON TAP-1 between 2011 and 2018 in about seven African countries. This included the C4 countries as well. The seven countries were Benin, Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, Malawi, Uganda and Nigeria. Later in 2019, India extended the progamme including four more countries. This was the second phase of the programme. The four countries included were Tanzania, Togo, Zambia and Ghana

The programme focused on improving competitiveness in cotton based apparel and textiles industry.

Month: Current Affairs - October, 2020