Experts predicted that this year, there may be an increase in the acreage for cotton plantations in the Northern States due to the recent untimely rain.
In Haryana, cotton, a key summer (Kharif) crop has so far been sown in 3.5 Lakh hectares. The government has set a target to sow cotton in 7 Lakh hectares this summer. According to a data released by the government, last season cotton in Haryana was planted on 5.74 Lakh hectares.
In Punjab, so far cotton has been sown on 30,000 hectares and the government aims to plant the crop on 3 lakh hectares as against 2.48 lakh hectares last year.
Ram Pratap Sihag, joint director with the Haryana Agriculture Department told The Hindu, “The recent rain is a good sign as it will prevent the problem of ‘burning’ due to high temperatures. Last year, we saw a substantial loss in cotton acreage due to this burning. Rain would also help in pacing up the sowing, especially in those regions which lack irrigation facilities. We are hopeful that the area under cotton would surpass last year’s acreage as the government is discouraging sowing of water-guzzling rice and going for crop-diversification this year,” said Mr. Sihag on Saturday.
Gurvinder Singh, director of Punjab Agriculture Department said, “The recent spell of rain has been unusual but it’s not bad. The rain will help in increasing the soil moisture content, which eventually would benefit the crop. The groundwater usage will also be less. The overall input cost is bound to go down which would be a benefit for farmers.”
In Punjab and Haryana, Bt cotton is sown in over 95% of the total area under cotton cultivation, the remaining 5% of the cultivable area usually has indigenous ( desi) cotton varieties. Cotton is usually planted from mid-April to late-May in most parts of Punjab and Haryana.
Rakesh Rathi, former president of India Cotton Association Limited (ICAL), said that cotton acreage is likely to increase in Haryana and north Rajasthan this year in comparison to last year. “In Haryana and Rajasthan, farmers are likely to shift to cotton from crops like guar and pulse (moong) as cotton is expected to fetch a better price. In Punjab, we are hopeful that the cotton acreage would be close to last year’s,” he said.
