Fibres

Natural fibres split into two plant fibres, cotton and jute, and two animal fibres, silk and wool, and each has a distinct climate or husbandry requirement worth holding separately rather than lumping "fibres" together as one topic.

Cotton

Cotton needs a long, frost-free growing season of at least 200 days, high summer temperatures, moderate rainfall (or reliable irrigation) concentrated in the earlier growing months, and bright, sunny, largely rainless conditions as the boll matures and opens, since rain at that late stage damages the fibre. It also grows best on well-drained soil capable of retaining moisture, and India's own black cotton soil (regur), the basalt-derived soil already covered in the weathering and mass movement note for its rock-to-soil formation pipeline, is the standard named example of ideal cotton soil precisely because of its clay-rich, moisture-retentive character. India and China are the world's two largest cotton producers by area and by volume, trading the top rank between them depending on the year and season's weather, with Brazil, the United States and Pakistan rounding out the rest of the leading tier; within India, cotton cultivation concentrates heavily on the black-soil tracts of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

Jute

Jute needs conditions almost the opposite of cotton's: high temperature, very heavy rainfall (over 150 cm annually), and, critically, waterlogged, low-lying alluvial land that is regularly flooded and replenished with fresh silt, the reason jute cultivation concentrates so heavily on a single geographic feature, the Ganga-Brahmaputra delta. India, chiefly in West Bengal, is the world's largest jute producer, with Bangladesh, occupying the larger share of the same delta system, a close second and historically the crop's dominant global exporter, since undivided Bengal's jute industry was split by partition into growing area (largely retained by India) and much of the original processing and export infrastructure (retained by what became Bangladesh), a colonial-era geographic split that still shapes the two countries' respective roles in the world jute trade today.

Silk

Silk is produced by silkworms fed on the leaves of a specific host plant, most commonly mulberry, and sericulture (silk cultivation) is consequently tied to wherever that host plant can be grown reliably, a warm temperate to subtropical climate with adequate rainfall. China overwhelmingly dominates world silk production, supplying roughly two-thirds of the global total, concentrated in provinces such as Zhejiang known for high-quality output, with India a distant but clear second; within India, Karnataka is the leading silk-producing state, and India is also the only major producer that cultivates all four commercially recognised silk varieties, mulberry, tasar, eri and muga, the last of these, muga, being a golden-yellow silk unique to Assam.

Wool

Wool comes from sheep rather than a cultivated crop, so its geography follows pastoral and ranching patterns rather than climate suited to growing anything: it is produced across both extensive commercial ranching country and, at smaller scale, subsistence pastoral regions, wherever sheep are reared at scale. China is the world's largest producer of greasy wool by volume today, its output driven by a very large domestic sheep population across Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet and consumed largely by its own textile industry, having overtaken Australia in total volume roughly a decade ago. Australia, however, remains the dominant force in wool quality and export: it supplies the majority of the world's fine Merino wool by value and accounts for the majority of wool actually traded internationally, precisely because a large share of China's own output is absorbed domestically rather than exported, the same production-versus-export gap already seen across tea, rice, wheat and rubber in this chapter cluster. New Zealand is the third major producer, specialising instead in coarser wool suited to carpets and heavier textiles rather than fine Merino garments.

Quick revision points

• Cotton needs a frost-free 200-day season, moderate early-season rainfall, and dry, sunny conditions as the boll opens; India's black cotton soil (regur) is the standard named example of ideal cotton soil. India and China are the two largest producers, trading the top rank by season; Brazil, the United States and Pakistan follow.
• Jute needs high heat, heavy rainfall and regularly flooded alluvial land; concentrated on the Ganga-Brahmaputra delta. India (West Bengal) is the largest producer; Bangladesh is a close second, a colonial-era split of undivided Bengal's growing area and processing infrastructure that still shapes both countries' roles in jute trade.
• Silk depends on the silkworm's host plant (mainly mulberry) rather than climate alone. China supplies roughly two-thirds of world silk; India is a distant second and the only country producing all four varieties (mulberry, tasar, eri, muga), with Karnataka the leading Indian state and muga unique to Assam.
• Wool follows pastoral geography, not crop climate. China leads production by volume (large domestic sheep population, mostly consumed domestically); Australia, despite lower total volume, dominates fine Merino wool quality and world export share; New Zealand is third, specialising in coarser wool.