A Progressive Cotton Conclave Highlights Important Achievements

Event & Conferences

A Progressive Cotton Conclave Highlights Important Achievements

Discovering economics of cotton to prevent poverty and promote prosperity

Initiative of COTTONGURU® with IMC-ERTF,
Mission Partner: Confederation of Indian Textile Industries (CITI),
Farmer Partner: Federation of Seed Industries of India (FSII)
Forex Partner : Edelweiss Securities Ltd.

The recently concluded COTTON CONCLAVE® attracted 32 progressive farmers from across the country, 124 thought leaders representing the entire cotton textile value chain, key government officials and policy makers, prime investors of textile equities. COTTONGURU® presented its model project “COTTONGURU® Pradarshan Khet”, where its team has worked for six months with progressive farmers in their farms to enhance their yields and quality, helping them to market their produce, and earn profits. A special award was presented to Ashish Hande, a young progressive farmer from Vidarbha, for his excellent work in creating “COTTONGURU Pradarshan Khet” and being an inspiration and trainer for many of famers in that area. Cotton farmers are faced with volatile prices. In a passionate appeal, Pashabhai Patel, Chairman, Agriculture Price Commission, Maharashtra, guaranteed quality cotton supply from minimum 50 villages of Maharashtra if the cotton textile industry is ready to buy cotton at attractive prices. Surprisingly, India’s largest cotton ginner – Manjeet Cotton came forward with its response to this appeal. Bhupendrasingh Rajpal of Manjeet Cotton has agreed to buy all the seed cotton (kapas) at a premium of Rs 400 per quintal (Rs 200 for contamination controlled cotton and Rs 200 if the cotton tests 31mm). The event also saw a presentation on India’s most innovative cotton textile hub - Hinganghat, Maharashtra comprising of APMC, the biggest and most farmer supportive in Maharashtra, Gimatex Industries (P) Ltd, the most integrated textile unit, Pee Vee Textiles (P) Ltd, the most innovative spinning unit using robotics, Prakash White Gold (P) Ltd, the best ginning factory making contamination controlled cotton and generating handsome premium. The event also served as a platform for introducing some of the latest farm technologies - NaPanta mobile App by young and dynamic V.Naveenkumar of Hyderabad. The App is being used by over 1.25 lakh farmers in AP and Telangana. The app was immediately downloaded in the mobile phone of all attending farmers for immediate benefits. Thought leaders who participated in COTTON CONCLAVE® 2018 shared their progress reports of last year based on the take away from the conclave. a) Gimatex Industries (P) Ltd, Maharashtra started a special Biotech plant for value addition of cotton by-products. b) Prakash White Gold (P) Ltd, Maharashtra generated premium for every bale manufactured keeping in mind the Red Light shown in Conclave that “ Contamination is discounted”. c) Anilkumar & Co, Karnataka organised a joint programme with state seed association to help farmers get best quality seeds. d) Amrutrao Deshmukh, award winner farmer for highest yield in Maharashtra, travelled with COTTONGURU across 600 villages, training 20000 farmers for increasing yield. All in all, COTTON CONCLAVE® 2019 gave a perfect platform to India’s most progressive cotton farmers, cotton textile supply chain stake holders, government officials and textile investors to openly share their views and integrate their efforts on solutions rather than problems.