Context:

World Cotton Day is observed annually on October 7th. 

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This year's World Cotton Day’s theme is “Cotton for Good”.

On this occasion, India’s Union Ministry of Textiles jointly hosted the conference with the Confederation of Indian Textile Industries (CITI) and Cotton Corporation of India focusing on the theme "Megatrends Shaping Cotton Textile Value Chain”.

• CITI is the only National Association that covers the entire spectrum of the Textile and Clothing Industry spanning domestic and exporting units.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of this international event, which honours one of the most widely used plants — cottonseed and cotton fibre being its most notable products.

Historical Background

The idea for World Cotton Day originated when our cotton producers in sub-Saharan Africa called Cotton Four nations — Burkina Faso, Benin, Chad, and Mali — proposed the World Trade Organization (WTO), a World Cotton Day celebration on October 7.

World Cotton Day is a concept that was born at the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) in 2018 and the first-ever World Cotton Day celebration was held at World Trade Organization headquarters (Geneva) in 2019.

• The ICAC is an association of members of cotton-producing, consuming and trading countries. 

In 2021, the United Nations formally recognized October 7 as “World Cotton Day,”.

Cotton

India is having 2nd place in the world with an estimated production of 343.47 lakh bales (5.84 Million Metric Tonnes) during cotton season 2022-23 and accounts for around 23% of the total global cotton production.

India is the only country that grows all four species of cotton – G. Arboreum & G. Herbaceum (Asian cotton), G. Barbadense (Egyptian cotton) and G. Hirsutum (American Upland cotton). 

• G. hirsutum represents 90% of the hybrid cotton in India and all the current Bt cotton hybrids are G.hirsutum.

India supports the cotton farmers by procuring cotton under Minimum Support Price (MSP).  

Climate and Soil for Cotton Cultivation 

• Cotton, is grown in tropical & sub-tropical conditions. 
• The optimum temperature for vegetative growth is 21-27oC & it can tolerate temperature to the extent of 43oC but temperature below 21oC is detrimental to the crop. 
• Cotton is grown on a variety of soils ranging from well-drained deep alluvial, black clayey soils, black soil, red soil etc.
• Cotton is semi-tolerant to salinity and sensitive to water logging and thus prefers well-drained soils.