There are nine States which are the major cotton producing ones. Besides these major States, cotton is also grown on a minor scale in the States of Assam, Bihar, Kerala, Meghalaya, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Tripura and West Bengal. There are wide differences in the agro- climatic conditions of the three major cotton growing zones. The North is characterised by extremes of high summer temperature exceeding 44 C and severe winter with mercury dipping to zero. Cotton is sown during the peak summer period and harvested well before the onset of severe winter.
Soils are mostly alluvial.
Rainfall during the cotton season is around 500mm. Occassionally, unseasonal heavy rains occur in September or during the early part of the season which cause crop damage. Most of the cotton in this region is irrigated. This zone takes a share of about 22 per cent of the country's total cotton area. The Central Zone is in several respects a contrast to the North Zone.