Cotton is cultivated in India from sub-Himalayan region of Punjab in the north to Kerala in south and from dry regions of Kutch to high rainfall areas of Manipur in east. It is cultivated on a large scale in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.

Cotton is a warm season crop. It requires a mean annual temperature of over 16°C and an annual rainfall of at least 50 cm distributed throughout the growing season. A daily minimum temperature of 16°C is required for germination and 21 to 27°C for proper vegetative growth. Cotton can tolerate temperatures as high as 43 Degree Celsius, but does not do well if the temperature falls below 21°C. During fruiting phase, the day temperature ranging from 27 to 32°C and cool nights are needed. If during the fruiting period heavy showers of rain occur of heavy irrigation is applied, shedding of the flowers and young bolls may result. Abundant sunshine during the period of boll maturation and harvesting is essential to obtain good quality produce. Cotton plant can not stand frost and hence its cultivation is restricted so an altitude of 1000 metres only. A frost-less season of 180 to 240 days is required in north India for successful cotton cultivation. Timely sowing of cotton is the single key factor to influence the cotton yields. Hence sowing should be done within the most optimum time, as sowing earlier and later than the normal time results in considerable reduction in cotton yield. The optimum sowing time in northern region is the first fortnight of May. Some varieties do permit sowing up to 25^th May. In Central zone, irrigated cotton should be sown between 15^th and 25^th May whereas rainfed cotton should be sown with the onset of monsoon. In Tamil Nadu, irrigated as well as rainfed crop is sown in September-October. In parts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, the desi cotton is sown in August-September.

Cotton can be successfully grown on all soils except the sandy, saline and waterlogged soils. It is grown on all types of soil, i.e., sandy loam, clay loam, loam, alluvial soils, black cotton soils, red sandy loams to loams and lateritic soils. Cotton needs a fertile soil with good moisture holding capacity. Good drainage and aeration are also essential, as the crop can not stand excessive moisture and water logging. Soil reaction should be between 5.5 to 8.5. Black cotton soils are ideal for rainfed crop in Peninsular India and alluvial soils for rainfed as well as irrigated crop in northern India.

In northern India many rotations of crops involving cotton are feasible. Crops like wheat, gram, pea, linseed, berseem etc., can be grown after harvest of cotton. Some of the important rotations are given below:

1. Cotton-wheat
2. Cotton-berseem
3. Cotton-gram
4. Cotton-pea
5. Cotton-linseed

In southern India cotton-sorghum-ragi is an important crop rotation in irrigated areas. Inter-cropping with ragi, other millets or groundnut in also quite common in parts of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In northern India mixed cropping or inter-cropping with sesamum, ragi, groundnut, castor, chillies, guar, etc., is quite common. Inter-cropping and mixed cropping under rainfed conditions serve both as an insurance against crop failures and as a preventive against soil erosion.

Cotton, being a deep rooted crop, requires well prepared seedbed. The field, after the harvest of the preceding crop, should be ploughed 15-20 cm deep with mould board plough. Thereafter three or four harrowing or four to five ploughing with local plough should be given. After each ploughing, planking is essential to make soil pulverized and leveled. No stubbles of the previous crop should be left in the field. Before sowing, the seed should be delinted with concentrated sulphuric acid or by machines. It helps in grading the seed by sorting out the damaged, cut, immature and shriveled seeds from the sound seeds. The pink bollworm larvae usually join two or more seeds, make them hollow from within and rest in them during winter season. Delinting also helps in killing the hibernating larvae in the seed. The pathogens of diseases on the seed fuzz are also destroyed by defuzzing. The defuzzed or delinted seed is easy to sow, it germinates rapidly. If seed delinting is not possible by chemicals, then the seed should be rubbed with a paste made of cow dung, ash and water and after rubbing the seed should be dried in shade. Seed should be treated with organo-mercurials to minimize the incidence of seed-borne diseases.

Seed rate varies according to the variety, its growth behaviour, soil fertility and production practices. A seed rate of 15 to 25 kg per hectare in case of American cottons and 10-18 kg per hectare in case of desi cottons is recommended. A spacing of 60 cm between rows and 45 cm between plants for American cottons and a spacing of 60 cm between rows and 30 cm between plants for local cottons is desirable. There is wide spacing in case of hybrid cottons in all the regions. The plant population should be between 50,000 to 80,000 plants per hectare. Sowing is done generally by drilling the seed in rows. Line sowing with seed drill is recommended in order to ensure uniform germination, better stand and easy intercultivation. The seed should be uniformly placed at a depth of 4-5 cm and properly covered with moist soil. The seeds placed too shallow dryup without germination, and those too deep find it difficult to come to the surface, the result in both cases being patchy germination and poor crop stand.

Whatever may be the method of sowing, still some gaps are always there. Immediately after the emergence of seedlings, it is advisable to go through the field and fill the gaps by dibbling water-soaked seeds to have quick emergence. In case of excess seedlings that are weak, diseased or damaged should be removed. Thus plants in clusters would be thinned out retaining robust and strong plants. The spacing between plants in a row should be kept 45 cm in American cottons and 30-35 cm in desi cottons.

Cotton plant being a heavy feeder needs proper manuring for its successful cultivation. Farm yard manure or compost is rarely applied to the cotton crop. Manures and fertilisers both play important roles in cotton cultivation. Use of farm yard manure helps in better conservation of moisture in the filed. Therefore, add 15-20 tonnes of farm yard manure or compost in the field. Recommended dose of fertilisers depends on the variety to be grown, its yield potential, whether rainfed or irrigated and the nutrients supplying capacity of the soil. Therefore, get the soil analysed and apply the nutrients accordingly. The recommended dose of nitrogen, phosphorus and potash are not uniform in all the cotton growing regions. In south-western region of Punjab, northern region of Rajasthan and western region of Haryana, the recommended dose of fertilisers is 80-100 kg nitrogen and 30 kg P₂O₅ per hectare whereas in central Punjab and western U.P., the recommended dose is 40-60 kg nitrogen and 20-30 kg P₂O₅ per hectare. The application of potash is made strictly according to soil test values. In central region comprising Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra, the dose is 100-120 kg nitrogen and 40-80 kg P₂O₅ per hectare in case of irrigated conditions and 40-60 kg nitrogen and 20-40 kg P₂O₅ per hectare in case of rainfed cotton. In case of hybrids a dose of 120-150 kg nitrogen region the recommendation is 40-100 kg nitrogen per hectare in case of irrigated cotton and 30-60 kg per hectare in case of rainfed cotton. Time and method of fertilizer application also play important role in the efficient use. All the quantity of phosphorus and potash should be drilled at the time of sowing. As regards nitrogen, half the quantity of nitrogen should be applied at the time of thinning and the rest half at the appearance of first flower. When soil is basically poor, first half dose of nitrogen should be given at the time of sowing along with phosphorus and potash and rest of the half dose at the commencement of the flowering period. Farm yard manure or compost should be applied in the field about 20-25 days before sowing.

Cotton is harvested in three or four pickings by hand as the boll matures. Cotton should be picked clean (free from dry leaves, bracts etc.) and dried to get a good price in the market. Cotton crop is ready for first picking by the middle of October in north India. The second picking should be done in the beginning of November, the third in the third week of November and the last in the first week of December. Picking should be done when bolls begin to fully burst and when kapas begins to hang-down. The kapas thus picked should be spread in the sun to dry for two to four hours on a clean surface. Do not keep the picked cotton in wet water-channels in the field, as this practice impairs the quality of cotton. Soon after the last picking, pullout the cotton sticks along with the roots from the filed and bury the remaining plant debris with a soil turning plough as a sanitary measure against pests and diseases.