After being a net importer of cotton for a long time, India became a net exporter for most years since the late seventies. A key question raised by this paper is whether India can continue to be a net exporter of cotton. These nine major cotton producing states account for almost 99 percent of cotton production. The share of the Northern Zone in the total production of cotton in the country is around 25 percent, while that of the Central Zone is between 45 percent and 50 percent. The Southern Zone accounts for 24 percent to 28 percent of total production.
Northern states have irrigation but Central and Southern states depend largely on rainfall.
Thus, total cotton production is vulnerable to weather conditions. Cotton in Northern and Central states is mainly medium and short staple types, while the bulk of the country's long staple and extra long staple cotton comes from Southern states. The significant rise in production was due mainly to increased yields with limited expansion to area. The area cultivated to cotton has ranged between 8.5-9.0 million hectares in recent years, only moderately higher than the 7.7 million hectares cultivated in the late sixties. However, the current cotton yield in India is still among the lowest in the world.