Pakistan recently decided to lift its nearly two-year ban on imports of cotton and sugar from India.
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India’s exports to Pakistan fell around 16 per cent to $1.82 billion in 2016-17 from $2.17 billion in 2015-16 after relations deteriorated in the aftermath of the Uri terror attack and the Indian Army’s surgical strikes on militant launchpads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in 2016.
The Pakistani decision to lift the ban on cotton imports comes in the backdrop of a shortage in raw material for Pakistan’s textile sector, which has reportedly suffered due to low domestic yields of cotton.
India is expected to be the world’s largest cotton producer in terms of the produced output surpassing China (in 2019).
India’s cotton production in 2019 is projected at 354 lakh bales (the highest ever) because of which it has been argued for extending GM technology to other areas so as to increase food crop yield.
Gujarat is the leading cotton growing State followed by Maharashtra. Maharashtra has the largest area under cotton cultivation followed by Gujarat.
