Fibre crops: cotton, jute and silk

Detail

The four major fibres

• Fibre crop: a plant grown for the long, thread-like strands in its seed hairs or stem, which can be spun into yarn.
• India has four major natural fibres: cotton, jute, hemp and natural silk.
• Cotton, jute and hemp come from crops (plants grown in fields).

• Silk is an animal fibre. It comes from the cocoons of silkworms, which are mostly fed on mulberry leaves.

• The fibre crops are commercial (cash) crops. Farmers grow them mainly to sell, not to eat. They feed India's textile and packaging industries.

Fibre	Source	Main growing condition	Leading area
Cotton	Seed hair (lint) of the cotton boll	Drier black soils, high temperature, 210 frost-free days	Deccan plateau and the north-west
Jute	Bark (bast) of the jute stem	Flood-plain soils renewed by silt every year, hot and humid	West Bengal (Ganga–Brahmaputra delta)
Hemp	Stem fibre	—	Minor crop
Silk	Silkworm cocoons	Food plants (mulberry, oak, castor, arjun)	Karnataka (mulberry); Assam (muga, eri)

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Cotton — "White Gold"

Origin and status

• India is believed to be the original home of the cotton plant.
• India is the only country that grows all four cultivated cotton species [2]:
• Gossypium arboreum and G. herbaceum: Asian (desi) cotton
• G. barbadense: Egyptian cotton

• G. hirsutum: American upland cotton. It gives nearly 90% of India's hybrid cotton, and all Bt cotton hybrids grown in India belong to this species [2].

• World rank (2024-25 season):

• 1st in cotton area: 114.84 lakh ha, about 38% of the world's 304.08 lakh ha [2]
• 2nd in production and consumption, after China [2]. (NCERT: second after China.)
• Production was 297.24 lakh bales (5.06 million tonnes) in 2024-25, nearly 20% of world output. The provisional figure for 2025-26 is 290.91 lakh bales [2].

• 1 bale = 170 kg of lint (the trade unit for cotton) [2].

• Cotton supports about 6 million farmers, and another 40–50 million people in processing and trade [2].

Growing conditions (cause → result)

• Kharif crop: sown with the south-west monsoon (June–July) and harvested in winter. Kharif means the monsoon (summer-sown) crop season.
• Soil: the drier parts of the black cotton soil (regur) of the Deccan plateau.
• Regur forms from weathered Deccan basalt lava.

• It is clay-rich and holds moisture for a long time, so cotton survives dry spells.

• Climate needs:

• High temperature
• Light rainfall or irrigation
• 210 frost-free days. Frost kills the plant and damages the open bolls.

• Bright sunshine and clear skies at flowering. Cloud and rain at this stage spoil the boll and the fibre.

• Duration: 6–8 months to mature, which is long for a crop.

• Water: about 62% of India's cotton is rainfed and 38% is irrigated [2]. This dependence on rain is one reason Indian yields stay low.

Staple length: what decides fibre quality

• Staple: the length of a single cotton fibre. Longer staple gives finer, stronger yarn.
• In the north-west, India grows both:
• short-staple (Indian/desi) cotton
• long-staple (American) cotton, called "narma"

Staple category	Length (mm) [2]
Short staple	20 and below
Medium staple	20.5–24.5
Medium-long staple	25.0–27.0
Long staple	27.5–32.0
Extra-long staple (ELS)	32.5 and above

Partition and later growth

• At Partition (1947), much of the irrigated cotton land of west Punjab and Sindh went to Pakistan.
• India's cotton area has grown steadily since then. Today it is the largest in the world [2].

Cotton belts of India

• Cotton covers about 4.7% of India's total cropped area (NCERT, Class 12).
• There are three belts:

Belt (NCERT)	States	Water	Yield	Official zone today [2]
North-west	Punjab, Haryana, north Rajasthan	Irrigated (canals)	High	Northern Zone: Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan
West	Gujarat, Maharashtra	Rainfed	Very low in Maharashtra (Vidarbha)	Central Zone: Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh
South	Plateaus of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu	Mixed	Medium	Southern Zone: Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka

• These 9 states grow most of India's cotton. Odisha and Tamil Nadu also grow it [2].
• Leading producers: Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana.
• Why yields differ:
• The north-west has assured canal irrigation, so yields are high.
• Maharashtra (Vidarbha) depends on erratic rain, so yields are very low and farmers often fall into debt.

Bt cotton

• Bt cotton: genetically modified (GM) cotton that carries a gene from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).

• The gene makes a protein that is poisonous to bollworms, the caterpillars that bore into cotton bolls [2].

• It was introduced commercially in 2002 after approval by the GEAC (Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee) [2]. It now covers over 90% of the cotton area.

• Result (2000s):
• fewer bollworm attacks
• fewer insecticide sprays

• higher yields and farm incomes [2]

• Plateau (after about 2010s):

• The pink bollworm developed resistance to Bt toxins, so pest damage returned.

• Yields stopped rising.

• Other problems:

• Illegal herbicide-tolerant Bt (HTBt) seed. HTBt is GM seed that survives weed-killer sprays and is not approved.
• High seed prices

• Agrarian distress in Vidarbha

• Government response:

• High-Density Planting System (HDPS): more plants per hectare. Field trials raised yields by about 40% [2].
• Early harvest under HDPS also cut pink bollworm losses [2].

Cotton policy and support

• MSP (Minimum Support Price): a floor price the government promises to farmers.
• It is recommended by the CACP (Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices) before each cotton year (October–September) [2].

• 2026-27 MSP: ₹8,267/quintal (medium staple) and ₹8,667/quintal (long staple) [2].

• Cotton Corporation of India (CCI): the nodal agency for MSP buying.

• It bought 105.09 lakh bales in the 2025-26 season [2].
• It ran 571 procurement centres across 152 districts in 11 states [2].

• The Kapas Kisan app lets farmers book slots to sell. Over 41 lakh farmers have registered [2].

• Mission for Cotton Productivity (launched 2025-26, five years, ₹5,659.22 crore) [2]:

• It focuses on Extra Long Staple (ELS) cotton and on climate-resilient, pest-resistant varieties.
• It covers about 24 lakh ha in 140 districts of 14 states [2].
• Its target is 498 lakh bales by 2031 [2].

• It follows the "5F" vision: farm → fibre → factory → fashion → foreign [2].

• Kasturi Cotton Bharat: the national brand for Indian cotton, built on traceability (tracking each bale from farm to mill), certification and branding [2].

• It is run by the Ministry of Textiles, CCI and TEXPROCIL, with an outlay of ₹30 crore [2].
• It certifies long staple (28 mm or more) and ELS (35 mm or more) cotton, using QR codes and blockchain [2].
• 3,29,550 bales had been certified by 30 June 2026 [2].

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Jute — "the Golden Fibre"

Definition and name

• Jute: a bast fibre, which is fibre taken from the inner bark of the plant stem.
• It is called the "Golden Fibre" because of its golden colour and silky shine [3].
• In trade, jute and mesta are counted together as "raw jute" [3].
• Mesta is a cheaper bast-fibre crop grown in drier areas [3].

Growing conditions (cause → result)

• Soil: well-drained, fertile flood-plain soils that are renewed every year by fresh silt from river floods.

• The best example is the Ganga–Brahmaputra delta in West Bengal and Bangladesh.

• Climate: high temperature, hot and humid weather, with 700–1,500 mm of rain while the crop grows [3].

• Season: sown in March–April and harvested in 100–110 days [3]. It is mostly rainfed and grown by small and marginal farmers [3].
• Retting: the cut stems are soaked in water so that the fibre separates from the stem.
• Jute therefore needs plenty of standing water. This is one more reason it stays in the wet eastern delta.

Distribution

• West Bengal gives about three-fourths of India's output. Bihar, Assam, Odisha and Meghalaya also grow it. PIB also lists Jharkhand [3].
• Jute covers only about 0.5% of the cropped area, but it is crucial to the economy of eastern India.
• World position:
• India is the world's largest producer of raw jute [3]. (NCERT: about three-fifths of world jute.)

• India makes about 75% of the world's jute goods (July 2026) [3].

• Production:

• jute + mesta: 88.02 lakh bales (2024-25) → 94.03 lakh bales (2025-26, Third Advance Estimate) [3]
• raw jute: 76 lakh bales and 12.80 lakh tonnes of jute goods in FY 2025-26 [3]

Partition and the "Grow More Jute" response

• Cause: at Partition (1947), nearly 80% of jute-growing land went to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), but most jute mills stayed in India around the Hugli belt [3].
• Effect: the Indian mills had an acute shortage of raw jute [3].
• Response: the "Grow More Jute" campaign (September 1949) encouraged farmers to switch from paddy to jute [3].
• Result: output more than doubled, from 6.7 lakh tonnes (1951-52) to 14.56 lakh tonnes (1961-62) [3].

Uses and industry

• Uses: gunny bags, mats, ropes, yarn, carpets and decorative items.

• Jute geotextiles are jute fabrics laid on soil. They protect slopes, river banks, roads and railway tracks from erosion [3].

• Jute is biodegradable (it rots away naturally) and recyclable, so it can replace plastic [3].

• Mills: there were 120 composite jute mills (December 2025), and 89 of them are in West Bengal [3]. Most stand along the Hugli river.
• Jobs: about 3.70 lakh mill workers and about 40 lakh farm families depend on jute [3].

Policy

• Jute Packaging Materials (Compulsory Use in Packing Commodities) Act, 1987: the law says some goods must be packed in jute.

• 100% of foodgrains and 20% of sugar must be packed in jute bags [3].

• MSP for raw jute: ₹5,925/quintal for 2026-27 [3].

• Jute Corporation of India (JCI): the sole MSP agency. It has about 110 purchase centres [3].
• National Jute Board runs the National Jute Development Programme [3]. It includes:
• JUTE-ICARE (Improved Cultivation and Advanced Retting Exercise, from 2015-16): certified seed, machines and better retting
• the Jute Diversification Scheme

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Sericulture and silk

Definition

• Sericulture: the rearing of silkworms to produce silk [4].
• Process (step by step) [4]: 1. Silkworms are fed leaves of mulberry, oak, castor or arjun. 2. After about a month, they spin cocoons. 3. The cocoons are boiled to soften the silk. 4. The threads are pulled out (reeled) and twisted into yarn. 5. The yarn is woven into fabric.

India's position

• India is the 2nd-largest producer of silk, after China, and the largest consumer of silk in the world [4].
• Raw silk output: 31,906 tonnes (2017-18) → 38,913 tonnes (2023-24) [4].
• Mulberry plantation area: 2,23,926 ha (2017-18) → 2,63,352 ha (2023-24) [4].
• Silk exports: ₹2,027.56 crore (2023-24) [4].
• India is the only country that produces all four commercial silks: mulberry, tasar (tropical and oak), eri and muga [5].

Silk	Type	Silkworm food plant	Main states	Output 2023-24 [5]
Mulberry	Domesticated	Mulberry	Karnataka (largest), Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir, West Bengal [4]	29,892 t
Tasar (tussar)	Vanya (wild)	Arjun, asan, sal; oak (oak tasar)	Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha	1,586 t
Eri	Vanya	Castor	Assam, Meghalaya	7,183 t
Muga ("golden silk")	Vanya	Som, soalu	Only Assam (GI tag)	252 t

• Vanya silk: silk from wild or semi-wild silkworms that feed on forest trees (oak, castor, arjun). It is less shiny but strong and durable [4].

• It is made mainly in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and the north-eastern states [4].

• Ranking of output (2023-24): mulberry > eri > tasar > muga [5].

• Institutions:
• Central Silk Board, set up under the Central Silk Board Act, 1948

• Silk Samagra-2: ₹4,679.85 crore for 2021-22 to 2025-26 [4]

• GI silks: Mysore silk (Karnataka), Kanchipuram silk (Tamil Nadu) and Muga silk (Assam).

• GI (Geographical Indication): a legal tag for a product whose quality comes from a specific place.

Prelims Hooks

• 210 frost-free days, bright sunshine at flowering, 6–8 months: cotton, a kharif crop of the drier black soils of the Deccan.
• "Narma": long-staple American cotton grown in the north-west (Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan). It is not the name of a desi variety.
• India ranks 1st in cotton area (about 38% of the world) but 2nd in production, after China. Trap: "largest cotton producer" is wrong for 2024-25 [2].
• India is the only country growing all four cotton species. All Bt hybrids are G. hirsutum [2].
• 1 cotton bale = 170 kg [2]. (Jute bales are a different unit.)
• Bt cotton: gene from Bacillus thuringiensis, introduced in 2002. The pink bollworm has become resistant. HTBt is not approved.
• Kasturi Cotton Bharat is a brand and traceability programme of the Ministry of Textiles, CCI and TEXPROCIL. It is not a cotton variety [2].
• Jute: West Bengal gives about ¾ of output. About 80% of jute land went to East Pakistan in 1947 [3]. The JPM Act, 1987 requires 100% of foodgrains and 20% of sugar to be packed in jute [3].
• Muga silk: only Assam. Eri: castor-fed (Assam, Meghalaya). Tasar: Jharkhand leads. Mulberry: Karnataka leads.
• Silk output order (2023-24): mulberry > eri > tasar > muga [5]. India is 2nd in production but 1st in consumption of silk [4].

Mains Points

• Cotton belts differ because of water (GS-I distribution, GS-III agriculture):
• The irrigated north-west gets high yields.
• Rainfed Vidarbha and Marathwada get very low yields, because about 62% of cotton is rainfed [2]. This leads to debt and distress.

• Responses: HDPS and closer spacing, ELS seed, MSP through CCI, and the Mission for Cotton Productivity target of 498 lakh bales by 2031 [2].

• Bt cotton is a technology with a time limit:

• Yields jumped after 2002.
• Pink bollworm resistance, illegal HTBt seed and high seed costs then stopped the gains.

• Policy needs: refuge planting, short-duration varieties, regulated GM approvals and integrated pest management.

• Partition broke the link between jute farms and jute mills:

• About 80% of jute land went to East Pakistan while the Hugli mills stayed in India.
• The "Grow More Jute" campaign doubled output by 1961-62 [3].

• Today the JPM Act, MSP and diversification (geotextiles, a plastic substitute) keep the industry alive. But it relies on a mandated market, and many mills are old [3].

• Sericulture is a rural, forest-based livelihood:

• Vanya silks (tasar, eri, muga) give income to tribal people in central and north-eastern India.
• Mulberry silk is concentrated in Karnataka.
• India is the only producer of all four silks, which supports GI branding and exports (₹2,027.56 crore in 2023-24) [4].