Cotton is so remunerative as a commercial crop that farmers, even in agro-climatic zones not suitable for cotton cultivation, grow cotton. This scenario underwent a change during the recent years. Due to heavy borrowing, over-investment in inputs and frequent crop failure, the cotton growers in India had to suffer severe and unbearable hardships. Many cases of suicide were recorded from different parts of the country among cotton growers. This study is based on the cotton cultivation in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. Guntur district is purposively chosen for the study in view of the importance attached to this district with respect to cotton growing. Against this backdrop, this paper makes an attempt to probe into the economic aspects of production and productivity of cotton crop by using the Cobb-Douglas production function. It is observed that the multiple coefficient of determination is significant at the 1% level for all the categories of farmers, indicating that there is significant contribution of all independent variables to the farm output of the sample farmers. It is also evident that the large farmers are more benefitted from per rupee investment in cotton cultivation, compared to other categories of sample farmers. Finally, the study suggests certain measures for the profitability of the cotton crop.

Cotton is known as the `king of textiles', since it is the oldest among all the fibers, used by human beings. It also plays a key role as one of the important commercial crops in the world economy. The cotton crop is cultivated as a major commercial crop, in more than 80 countries across the world. Cotton cultivation takes place on an average of about 33-34 million hectares of area every year. The largest cotton-producing and cotton-consuming countries in the world are China, the United States, India and Pakistan. These four countries together account for about 60% of total world cotton production and consumption.

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