Last year, when India’s cotton production was booming, it was marred by the irony of farmer suicides. Now, as the country prepares to become the world’s second largest cotton producer thanks to the aggressive use of Bt cotton seeds, an unlikely development is threatening to shadow the achievement and force the Government’s urgent intervention, especially if it shifts into election mode. It’s the darker side of the Bt cotton success story. As these seeds yield only high-quality medium and long staple cotton, there is a severe shortage of low quality short staple cotton, of which India has always had a surplus. This is adversely affecting the small-scale spinning and handloom sector, which employs 13 million workers and produces 20 per cent of India’s cloth. The handloom industry relies on the coarse count yarn manufactured from short staple cotton, but its production has dipped sharply from 16.25 lakh bales in 1996-97 to just 7 lakh bales in 2005-06 (see graphic). The numbers are becoming worse every year, says R. Kuppusamy, president of the South India Small Spinners Association. “Short staple cotton was abundantly grown in Punjab and Karnataka, but both farmers in both the states have taken up Bt cotton in a big way,” he says. “The manufacturers of coarse count cotton yarn are forced to use medium staple cotton, which increases their raw material cost and consequently our costs by at least 10 per cent,” says Kuppusamy, who raised the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at last week’s Textile Summit in Delhi.
