TRENDS IN AREA, PRODUCTION AND PRODUCTIVITY OF COTTON ACROSS THE MAJOR STATES IN INDIA

Cotton is the most important fiber crop of the world and also one of the most widely grown commercial crops in India. Cotton is grown in the nine major states in three different zones in the country. Data on area, production and productivity of cotton was collected from 1980 onwards for the nine major cotton growing states. The results revealed that the average production of cotton in the country was 90.05 lakh bales during period I which increased to 166.40 lakh bales in the period II showing a change of 84.78 per cent between the two periods. And the productivity of cotton for the country as a whole increased from 210 kg/ha in period I to 318 kg/ha in the period II with a change of 55.64 per cent. The Garrett’s ranking technique was used to rank the constraints with importance to quality. The poor awareness among the farmers especially with respect to the packing material they use was identified as the major problem.