About CITI CDRA

• Established in the year 1970, the Cotton Development and Research Association (CDRA) is aimed at strengthening the cotton value chain by involving various stakeholders.
• Initially, the emphasis of CDRA was on the Research of varieties/hybrids which would meet the requirements of the industry for finer counts and increase the production and productivity of the cotton.
• However, after the implementation of the Technology Mission on Cotton (TMC) by the Government of India in 2000, the CDRA withdrew from the research work and concentrated on extension work in various cotton- growing states of the country.
• At present, CDRA is carrying out its activities in the states of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh in association with various regional Textile Mills Associations, State Agriculture Departments, ICAR CICR, MoT & MoA&FW.

Goals: CITI CDRA

• Adopting the latest technologies to improve productivity and reduce the cost of cultivation of farmers.
• Trainings for adoption of integrated plant protection (IPP) and integrated nutrient management (INM) measures by the large no. of farmers
• Promoting Good Agricultural Practices (GAPS) for enhancing yield, reducing costs of production, and increasing cotton farmer’s income.
• Creating mass awareness regarding Pink Boll Worm attack on cotton Crop, its control, and also safe use of pesticides.
• Method demonstration on Biopesticides.
• Women empowerment and improving income generation.
• Encouraging Kitchen gardening, intercropping and Border planting for improving the farmers nutrition uptake.

Background

CITI in association with the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare and Ministry of Textiles is working on a Pilot Project of Cotton under NFSM which is aimed at enhancing the cotton productivity of India by using a cluster-based and value chain approach and Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode.

Key stakeholders in this project include:

• ICAR-CICR, Nagpur;
• CITI & SIMA;
• Seed Industry Associations (NSAI and FSII);
• Extension partners like Cotton Development and Research – Associations of CITI and SIMA
• Agricultural Technology Application Research Institutes (ATMA)
• Krishi Vigyan Kendra’s (KVK)
• State Departments of Agriculture.
• Textile partners.
• Cotton Corporation of India (CCI)

Overview of the project

The pilot project encompasses three sub-projects, each focusing on specific technologies like HDPS, ELS and Closer Spacing, targeted at enhancing productivity in identified agro-ecological zones.

Overall project area : 10,415 hectares

CITI CDRA project area : 3160 hectares

Glimpses of extension activities

Salient features of the web portal and Mobile application by CITI

The portal and mobile application developed by CITI will act as a single platform  to be used by farmers, implementing partners/Industries, Project team, and Government officials for various project related work.

Portal and Mobile application are being designed to meet the stringent requirements of growth, security, availability and ability to integrate with the various other related internal and external systems for best coordinated performance towards sustainability and traceability.

It will be a state-of-the-art, n-tier, robust, integrated, and multitenant solution with individual modules collectively working to meet the requirement.

Module 1: Farm Connect

Will be used extensively for registration and creation of login credentials of project farmers through the mobile app.

Will capture the below details

• Personal Details like name, age, address, contact, bank account, land, technology etc. on mobile app.
• Crop details like type of soil, area under cultivation, type of irrigation, fertilizers, expected yield, seed used, crop quality, crop parameters etc.
• Field location through geo tagging and geo fencing as also real time images of field and crop

Module 2: Kapas e-Market

This module will act as a market place for facilitating farmers and industry in sale and purchase of the cotton produced under the pilot project.

This module will ensure complete traceability of the cotton produced under the project as also transparency in pricing to safeguard interest of farmers.

Module will

• Display the State wise-Variety Wise list of cotton which is available for sale
• Showcase Area wise list of Ginners/Government procurement centers to help farmers identify their nearest location of sale

Module 3: Samiksha

This module will be used to generate various customized reports for various stake holders of the project. It will also be used for validation of registered farmers Government officials at various levels

Authorization for Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) vide a “Based-Merchant Based e-Rupee Voucher System ” for various inputs like seeds, nutrients, etc. used by the farmers will also be provided by this module.

Module 4: e-Mitra

Will be used for sharing information in form of multilingual audio/video tutorials regarding best practices & sustainability.

This module will also forecast and notify about the latest market trends and climatic conditions.

It will act as single information dissemination platform about the region wise suitability of seed varieties and other inputs as also suppliers of same.

The module will also give timely updates to all registered farmers about their crop management as also information about any crop related diseases

Achievements

• CITI CDRA stands out as the sole organization to have accomplished 100% of the designated project area amongst the extension activity partners under the Special Project on Cotton of Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Textiles.
• CITI CDRA’s coverage spans 36% of the total project area and encompasses 45% of the total participating farmers.

• 100% of female farmers chosen for support through CS intervention in Rajasthan exemplify CITI’s commitment to empowering women in agriculture
• In terms of agricultural production, noteworthy increases were observed: an average yield enhancement of 30 to 44% under High-Density Planting System (HDPS) in Maharashtra, more than 30% boost under closer spacing techniques in Rajasthan, and an 8% improvement in Extra Long Staple (ELS) technology in Madhya Pradesh under Project area. (as per survey data Feb 2024)
• CITI has successfully developed an IT portal and mobile application named “Kapaas Mitra”, now available for streaming on both the NIC platform and the Google Play Store for the monitoring and evaluation purpose of the project.