Coimbatore : The two-day All India Biennial Conference on Cotton beginning here on August 17 will discuss among things doubling the income of farmers, cotton yield and acreage, in the backdrop of India being the largest producer of cotton for the last three years.

The main theme of the conference is India cotton scenario in 2018-19 along with global cotton outlook as a backdrop, in which around 450 delegates, including those abroad, are expected to attend, Indian Cotton Federation
(ICF) president J Thulasidharan, the organisers, told reporters here today.

Cotton being a natural fibre, farmers had to overcome unforeseen situation of climate change, cost escalation, quality seeds, technology upgradation and the conference will request the Centre to carry out an agronomy research on cotton so that their income could be doubled as envisioned by the Prime Minister, he said.

The conference, jointly organised with Bathinda-based Indian Cotton Association would also attempt to create awareness among the stakeholders on the benefit of future trading and hedging through MCX, Thulasidharan said.

The cream of stakeholders like ginners, traders, brokers and cotton consuming mills would deliberate on key issues on fibre quality, volume, export and import, which were facing a lot of issues and challenges and needed a rationale business protocol, conference chairman P Nataraj said.

Deliberations would also be held on logistics, taxation, GST in particular, quality and contamination, minimising supply and demand mismatch and policy initiative to match the prices of cotton with value-added finished goods like yarn and fabrics, Nataraj, who is also chairman of Southern India Mills’ Association, said.