By Nayan Dave
With cotton sowing already crossing the 10-million-hectare mark within the present kharif season, costs are more likely to fall additional within the home market.
At current, cotton costs are hovering round Rs 80,000-85,000 per sweet (1 sweet = 356 kg), stated Atul Ganatra, president of the Cotton Association of India, including, “In the wake of increased acreage under cotton cultivation, we are expecting further correction in prices. At one point of time, prices of cotton went up to Rs 110,000 per candy earlier this year.”
Sowing continues until the second week of August in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu, stated Ganatra. According to him, at the least 10% larger sowing is anticipated in comparison with earlier kharif season’s 12 million hectare.
“Looking at the current trend, cotton sowing in Maharashtra is expected to cross 4.2 million hectare. In Gujarat, it would be around 2.7 million hectare. The cotton acreage in north will be around 1.5 million hectare and the same for southern states is likely to remain at around 3.5-4.0 million hectare. The area under cotton cultivation in Madhya Pradesh is likely to remain at nearly 600,000 hectares,” he stated.
Although the acreage of cotton exceeds targets in Maharashtra yearly, manufacturing is larger resulting from higher yield per hectare. In Maharashtra, farmers produce 2 bales (170 kg per bale) per hectare on a median, whereas in Gujarat it’s 3 bales. Apart from northern states, many of the space below cotton cultivation is closely depending on rain water. In Punjab and Haryana, the place 80% rising space will get advantages of the irrigation facility, productiveness goes as excessive as 4 bales per hectare, Ganatra stated.
Avdhesh Sejpal, president of the All India Cotton, Cotton Seeds and Cotton Cake Brokers Association, stated farmers are shifting to cotton as they’re anticipating higher return in comparison with different monsoon crops. He, nevertheless, stated farmers should be watchful as costs could go right down to under Rs 60,000 per sweet by October in case of a bumper crop.
CM Patel, joint director of agriculture with the Gujarat authorities, stated farmers are bullish over cotton crop as sowing has crossed 2.05-million-hectare mark until July 10. In the identical interval final yr, it was hardly round 1,84,000 hectare, stated Patel.
Source: www.financialexpress.com”