COTTON OUTPUT MAY FALL 4.7% THIS FISCAL ON SCANT RAINFALL

cotton production in 2018/19 is likely to fall 4.7% from the previous season to 34.8 million bales, as scant rainfall and an attack of pink bollworms are expected to squeeze crop yields, the head of a leading trade body told Reuters.

The drop in output could limit exports from the world’s biggest producer of the fibre amid rising demand from top consumer China and in turn support global prices, which are hovering near their lowest level in more than nine months hit last week.

“In Gujarat, we are expecting a big drop in production due to dry weather,” said Atul Ganatra, president of the Cotton Association of India. Gujarat, India’s top cotton producing state, received 28 percent lower rainfall than normal in the June-September monsoon season, according to the India Metrological Department.

The western state’s fibre output is estimated to drop 14.3% from a year earlier to 9 million bales in the new marketing season that started on October 1, he said. In Maharashtra, the country’s second-biggest cotton producer, output is expected to ease to 8.1 million bales from 8.3 million bales due to an attack of the pink bollworm pest, Ganatra said.Indian farmers have adopted genetically-modified seeds known as Bt cotton that are resistant to bollworms, but it has not stopped the infestations.

Pink bollworms consume the fibre and seeds inside a cotton plant’s boll, or fruit, and yields fall.

MUMBAI:India’s