Cotton farmers in Northern India suffered heavy losses in the last kharif season.
What are the reasons for less cotton productivity?
The cotton productivity estimate was reported to be at its lowest in the North zone comprising of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.
North zone cotton, which recorded the highest cotton yield in 2019-20 is now down by over 30%.
Reasons – The losses are mounting due to the rising cost of cultivation, climate induced change in pest dynamics and rampant sale of unauthorised seeds and unchecked pesticides sprays.
Health & Environment – The boom and tractor mounted sprayers are back with unimaginable consequences on human health and environment.
Climate Change – Climate change induced weather aberration, widespread infestation of boll devouring pink bollworm, new tobacco streak virus disease and boll rot have recently threatened cotton farmers.
Crop diseases – The white fly transmitted severe cotton leaf curl virus and sudden outbreak of para wilt have worsened the situation for North zone farmers.
Lack of infrastructure – The cotton sector seems to be dogged by some serious structural deficiencies.
What is the impact of low cotton productivity?
Imbalance in demand-supply – Cotton productivity, has continuously been decelerating, causing imbalance in demand-supply of cotton and uncertainty in the cotton textile industry.
Increase in imports – This dip in cotton production has forced the textile industry to rely on imports, which increased to 35.3 lakh bales worth ₹8,339.26 crore in 2018-19.
The relaxation in import duty structure would hit the balance of trade in cotton, which remained favourable over the last two decades.
Decrease in exports – On the other hand, cotton exports, which peaked in 2014-15, have since declined.
What are the strategies used to overcome the challenges?
HDPS – The cropping system of cotton must gradually undergo a systematic change to high density planting system (HDPS).
The HDPS is a new cropping system of accommodating more plants per unit area supported by technological inputs for weed management, defoliation and mechanical picking.
Dibbling – Our farmers practice dibbling based sowing of bushy-type, long duration hybrid cotton seeds at a large spacing accommodating fewer plants per acre.
The farmers harvest seed cotton 3-4 times in a season spanning 180 to 280 days in different cotton growing zones.
Hybrid Cotton – New erect type hybrid cotton genotypes have been introduced to optimise plant population.
However, but this forms just one-fourth of what is being practiced under HDPS in countries with high cotton yield.
What is the way forward?
Policies – The government-led policy paradigm on cotton must give way to progressive evidence-based policies on pricing of seeds and safeguarding intellectual property.
Intellectual Property Rights – Enforcement of IPR on new varieties suitable for HDPS while ensuring farmers’ rights must be strengthened to attract investment in R&D and breeding of high-density suitable genotypes.
Transfer of Seeds – Exchange of pre-breeding germplasm under material transfer agreement (MTA) and access and benefit sharing (ABS) mechanism for cross border material transfer must be prioritised.
Price Control – The price control of cotton seeds under the Cotton Seed Price (Control) Order, 2015 has discouraged breeding activities and stalled introduction of much needed technologies for weed management.
This has also fuelled the growth of illegal market for herbicide tolerant (HT) cotton.
