Farmers in Punjab appear hesitant to sow cotton over a large area though the crop has been fetching high prices compared to the minimum support price (MSP) in the past two seasons. The state government has fixed a target of bringing around 3 lakh hectares under cotton, which is 52,000 hectares more than the total area of 2.48 lakh hectares last season.
The state has the potential to bring around 8 lakh hectares under cotton crop. This season, sowing began in April and so far farmers have completed it across 1.21 lakh hectares. It will continue till the end of May or early June.
In Punjab’s cotton belt comprising eight districts, Bathinda, Fazilka, Mansa and Muktsar record the highest area under the crop. The other districts in the belt are Moga, Barnala, Sangrur and Faridkot. Fazilka district recorded the highest sowing last year when it had 93,000 hectares under cotton. This year, sowing has been completed on 71,000 hectares so far.
“We are focusing on increasing around 5,000 to 10,000 hectares in the major cotton sowing districts this year to achieve our target,” said director of Punjab Agriculture Department Dr Gurvinder Singh.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Parampal Singh, a cotton farmer in Bathinda’s Teana village, said he used to sow cotton on his land, which measures around 10 acres, but over the past four to five years, he gradually started decreasing the area under the crop. Now he grows cotton only on 3.5 acres. “Frequent diseases over the past few years affected the yield. I used to get around 15 quintals per acre, but it reduced by 30-40 per cent during the years when it was hit by diseases.” This year, Singh says, he will sow paddy on the remaining 6.5 acres.
“In Punjab, the major reason behind decreasing cotton area is that in the last few years various diseases, including white flies and pink bollworms, have been attacking the crop. Also, farmers need timely water supply in the canals in the cotton belt at the time of sowing. They are not well versed with methods of damage control due to the lack of extension services in cotton sowing under which farmers can gain proper knowledge about the seed, diseases, natural methods of pest control and judicious usage of right types of pesticides,” said a senior officer in the Punjab Agriculture department.
The officer added that the government is aware but not much effort is taken in this regard by way of strengthening extension services.
According to data provided by the Punjab Mandi Board in this season till March 31, a total of 8.01 lakh (8,01,067) quintals of raw cotton arrived in the mandis against 28.90 lakh quintals last year, which is a reduction of 72 per cent. Meanwhile, just 4,000 hectares more was under cotton in 2022-23 compared to 2021-22. But the yield dipped by 45 per cent per acre this season due to various crop diseases.
According to Indian Cotton Association Limited (ICAL), 2.50 lakh bales (cotton after ginning) could be pressed in Punjab this season till March 31, as against 8.50 lakh bales in 2021-22 in the corresponding period and it was also way below the earlier estimate of around 4.04 lakh bales. One bale is equal to 170 kg of ginned cotton (cotton separated from cotton seed).
The rate of raw cotton (unginned) remained between Rs 8,000 to 9,000 per quintal, which is way above the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 5,726 and Rs 6,380 per quintal for medium and long staple raw unginned cotton, respectively.
Punjab used to have more than 7 lakh hectares (LH) under cotton crop as was recorded in the years 1988-89 (7.58 LH), 1989-90 (7.33 LH) and 1991-92 (7.19 LH ).