Efficiency in Cotton Production Across the States in India

Agriculture has a long history in India, dating back to the Indus Valley Civilization and it was discovered in some places of Southern India even before the Harappans. Today, India is one of the leading countries regarding farm output. Along with fisheries and forestry, agriculture is among the greatest contributors to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Statista shows that in 2019, 42.6% of India’s workforce was devoted to farming; the rest worked in the industrial and service sectors. Cotton is one of the oldest crops in India, which has been growing since 3000 BCE (Santhanam and Sundaram, 1997). Cotton is an important cash crop. It is called “white gold” in some places because it brings in foreign exchange (Khan et al., 2020). India is one of the top cotton producers and exporters in the world. More than 60 million people are working in the cotton textile and processing sector directly and indirectly (Blaise and Kranthi, 2019). India has a competitive advantage in producing cotton (Sharma and Bugalya, 2014) (Maqbool Rehman et al., 2020).  85% of the world’s cotton is cultivated in ten major countries, including India, the second-largest producer (Samuel et al., 2015). In 2000, the cotton production area in India was 8709.5 thousand hectares, which increased to 13286 thousand hectares in 2020, while cotton productivity in 2000 was 225 kg per hectare, which increased to 455 Kg per hectare in 2020.
               
Cotton is one of the oldest crops in the world. About 60 million people are directly engaged in cotton textiles and processing works (Blaise and Kranthi, 2019). The cotton yield could have been better than the Bt cotton production started in 2002 in India. It was a gene revolution. Farmers have quickly adopted Bt cotton in India, which is grown on almost 90% of cotton fields (Kalamkar, 2013). Bt cotton implementation made a change in cotton production. It accounted for the rapid growth in cotton production in India (Bennett et al., 2004) (Ashok et al., 2012) (Stone, 2012) (Subramanian and Qaim, 2010). India has a competitive advantage in cotton production (Sharma and Bugalya, 2014) (Maqbool et al., 2020). The cost of cotton production in India is 5 to 6 times lesser than USA (Sharma and Bugalya, 2014). Because Bt cotton has resulted in significant pesticide savings (Ali and Abdulai, 2010) (Bennett et al., 2005) (Qaim et al., 2006). Despite the competitive advantage, India has a significantly lower yield than the global average yield. It is lower than 500 kg lint per hectare, while the global average yield of cotton production is 792 kg lint per hectare (Blaise and Kranthi, 2019). Changing the planting date, High-density planting can increase cotton production yield (Hebbar et al., 2013) (Blaise and Kranthi, 2019). There is another way to increase yield and reduce costs with sustainable development. It is better cotton. Better cotton is more input and output-efficient (Zulfiqar and Thapa, 2016). Better cotton (BC) should be promoted to help the farmers increase the yield, reduce the cost and conserve natural resources and social benefits (Zulfiqar and Thapa, 2018). This article aims to find out the relative yield efficiency across the Indian states in cotton production.

In this article, we have found out whether there is any significant difference in the yield of cotton farming across states or not? For this research article, data on cotton production and yield in each state from 2000 to 2020 is taken from the INDIASTAT website (https://www.indiastat.com/). Data on Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu were separated since 2011, so it has been merged for the consistency of the study. The ANOVA technique was used to analyse the relative efficiency of the cotton yield of the states. The ANOVA was calculated with the help of the SPSS V22 (Statistical Package of Social Science). This work is carried out in 2022 in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Business Management of Aligarh Muslim University.

The F-Value is 11.569 which is statistically significant at 5% (p<0.05) (Table 1). The value of ANOVA shows that there is a significant difference in mean yield across the states.
 

 
Comparison: Gujarat v/s other states
 
The result of the analysis shows that there is a significant differences (Appendix Table 3) in the yield of Gujarat with respect to the yield of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh only. Other than these three states, Gujrat has differences in yield but these differences are insignificant. The comparison shows that the Gujrat has a significantly higher yield than Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
 

 
 
 
The above picture shows the efficiency of the states in terms of yield in decreasing (Higher to lower) order.
 
Comparison: Haryana v/s other states
 
The result of the analysis shows that there is a significant difference (Appendix Table 4) in the yield of Haryana with respect to the yield of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh only. Other than these three states, Haryana has differences in yield but these differences are insignificant. The comparison shows that Haryana has a significantly higher yield than Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
 

 
 
 
The above picture shows the efficiency of the states in terms of yield in decreasing (Higher to lower) order.
 
Comparison: Karnataka v/s other states
 
The result of the analysis shows that there is a significant difference (appendix Table 5) in the yield of Karnataka with respect to the yield of Gujrat, Haryana and Punjab only. Other than these three states, Karnataka has differences in yield but these differences are insignificant. The comparison shows that Karnataka has a significantly lesser yield than the Gujrat, Haryana and Punjab.
 

 
 

The above picture shows the efficiency of states in terms of yield in increasing order (Lower to Higher).
 
Comparison: Maharashtra v/s other states
 
The analysis shows a significant difference (Appendix Table 6) in the yield of Maharashtra and Gujrat, Haryana, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh only. Other than these six states other states have differences in yield but these differences are insignificant. The comparison shows that Maharashtra yields significantly less than Gujarat, Haryana, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.
 

 
 
 
The above picture shows the efficiency of the states in terms of yield in increasing order (lower to higher).
 
Comparison: Madhya Pradesh v/s other states
 
The result of the analysis shows that there is a significant difference (Appendix Table 7) in the yield of Madhya Pradesh with respect to Gujrat, Haryana and Punjab only. Other than these three states, Madhya Pradesh has differences in yield but these differences are insignificant. The comparison shows that Madhya Pradesh has a significantly lesser yield than the Gujrat, Haryana and Punjab.
 

 
 
 
The above picture shows the efficiency of the states in terms of yield in increasing order (lower to higher).
 
Comparison: Orissa v/s other states
 
The result of the analysis shows that there is a significant difference (Appendix Table 8) in the yield of Orissa with respect to the yield of Maharashtra and Punjab only. Other than these two states, Orissa has differences in yield but these differences are insignificant. The comparison shows that Orissa has a significantly higher yield than Maharashtra and the lesser yield than Punjab.
 

 
 
 
The above picture shows the efficiency of the states in terms of yield in decreasing order (higher to lower).
 
Comparison: Punjab v/s other states
 
The result of the analysis shows that there is a significant difference (Appendix Table 9) in the yield of Punjab with respect to the yield of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh only. Other than these Seven states, Punjab has differences in yield but these differences are insignificant. The comparison shows that Punjab has a significantly higher yield than Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
 
 

 

The above picture shows the efficiency of the states in terms of yield in decreasing order (higher to lower).
 
Comparison: Rajasthan v/s other states
 
The analysis result shows a significant difference (Table 10) in the yield of Rajasthan with respect to the yield of Maharashtra and Punjab only. Other than these two states, Rajasthan has differences in yield, but these differences are insignificant. The comparison shows that Rajasthan has a significantly higher yield than Maharashtra and the lesser yield than Punjab.
 

 
 

The above picture shows the efficiency of the states in terms of yield in decreasing order (higher to lower).
 
Comparison: Tamil Nadu v/s other states
 
The result of the analysis shows a significant difference (appendix Table 11) in the yield of Tamil Nadu with respect to the yield of Punjab only. Other than Punjab, Tamil Nadu has differences in yield with other states but these differences are insignificant. The comparison shows that Tamil Nadu has a significantly lesser yield than Punjab.
 

 


The above picture shows the efficiency of the states in terms of yield in decreasing order (higher to lower).
 
Comparison: Tamil Nadu V/s Other States
 
The result of the analysis shows that there is a significant difference (Appendix Table12) in the yield of Andhra Pradesh with respect to the yield of Maharashtra and Punjab only. Other than these two states andhra Pradesh has differences in yield with other states but these differences are insignificant. The comparison shows that Andhra Pradesh has a significantly higher yield than Maharashtra and a lesser yield than Punjab.
 

 
 

The above picture shows the efficiency of the states in terms of yield in decreasing order (higher to lower).
       
After analysing the efficiency of the yield of the states by using ANOVA. It is found that there is a statistically significant difference in the yield of the states. It is also found that Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat have the highest yield, while Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have the lowest yield. Other states have the average Yield.
 
Virtual water efficiency state wise in decreasing order
 
Cotton is the crop which had a large requirement for water. Maharashtra and Karnataka were the states where rainfall was uneven and Maharashtra had poor soil fertility too. The dryland of Karnataka made the worst situation for producing cotton (Gopalakrishnan et al., 2007). Farmers grew cotton because the government provided many incentives, which made cotton production cheaper. Cheaper production made cotton yield inefficient (Mohanty et al., 2002). Table 2 shows that, the potential cotton yield in Punjab Haryana and Gujrat was also more than in the other states (Ramasundaram and Gajbhiye 2001). That’s why these states had an actual high yield of cotton.
 
 



Table 2 shows that, all the Indian states have prominent potential yield which is not achieved by the Indian farmers. There is huge gap in the potential cotton yield and actual cotton yield of the Indian states. Increasing actual yield up to the level of the potential yield level will decrease per unit cost of cotton production and the farmers’ income will also increase.

This paper analysed the country’s relative cotton production efficiency across India’s states. The study results show that Punjab, Haryana, Gujrat and Orissa are the most efficient states in cotton production. At the same time, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh are the least efficient or inefficient states in cotton production. The rest of the states, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, are average in cotton yield. Government should take the necessary steps to increase the average yield of cotton by shifting cotton farming from low-yield to high-yield regions. The government should promote cotton production where the yield is higher.

None.