Unravelling the Challenges in Cotton Processing Industries: A Comprehensive Constraint Analysis

Abstract

The textile industry is one of India's oldest industries and has been there for a long time. Cotton has a major economic influence in India, where it is mostly used in the textile sector. One of the most often produced and exported items from India is cotton yarn. The goal of the current study is to examine and record the challenges faced by the cotton processing units along the value chain of the crop. The study was conducted in Adilabad and Nalgonda districts of Telangana state.  The required data was gathered from a sample size of 10 ginning mills, 10 spinning mills, 10 weaving mills, one dyeing and printing mill and one garment manufacturing unit, using well-structured and pretested schedule by personal interview method.  To analyze the collected data Garrett ranking methodology was employed. The research found that, higher cost of machinery, higher rate of interest, exorbitant prices of raw material, underutilization of installed capacity, higher working capital requirement, shortage of electricity, lack of technical human resource, competition from the big and organized sector and lack of marketing cooperatives were the major problem faced by the different processing units of cotton. Therefore, the study suggests that the government provide subsidies for the purchase of machinery, at least for small-scale businesses, impart training to the youth and establishment of marketing cooperative at every successive stage of the cotton processing in order to make the processing units more competitive in business.