Cotton was a force of nature. To raise awareness of the importance of cotton and cotton-related products we celebrate October 7 as World Cotton Day. The day is celebrated by the United Nations, the World Food Organization, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the International Trade Center and the International Cotton Advisory Committee. World Cotton Day was first organized in the year 2019.
Cotton is very important for the textile industry. It also provides employment to a large number of people. The top two cotton producers, India and China, contribute approximately 45-50 percent of the world's production. Currently, India is the world's leading producer of cotton, surpassing China recently.
What is cotton?
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus Gossypium in the mallow family Malvaceae. Cotton can be used to make clothes, homewares, and industrial products. Cotton seed can be used as stock feed.
Several civilizations in both the Old and New World started using cotton for making fabrics, independently of each other. Cotton was used in the Old World from at least 5000BC. Evidence of cotton use has been found at the site of Mehrgarh, on the Kacchi Plain of Balochistan, Pakistan, where early cotton threads have been preserved in copper beads.
Why cotton is so important?
Cotton is the most widespread profitable non-food crop in the world. Its production provides income for more than 250 million people worldwide and employs almost 7% of all labor in developing countries. Approximately half of all textiles are made of cotton.
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