Punjab sees lowest-ever acreage under cotton

Chandigarh: Punjab has recorded the lowest-ever acreage under cotton at 1.75 lakh hectares in this Kharif season, as against the target of 3 lakh hectares, a senior official of the agriculture department has said.

It was for the first time that the area under cotton has gone below two lakh hectares in Punjab despite several efforts being made by the state agriculture department to promote it as an alternative to the water-guzzling paddy crop.

The agriculture department had set a target of 3 lakh hectares of area under cotton this Kharif season but only 1.75 lakh hectares of area could be covered under this crop, the official said.

According to officials, the main reason behind the lowest ever coverage under cotton was that there has been extensive damage to cotton for the past two years because of whitefly infestation and pink bollworm insects attack.

Whiteflies cause damage to cotton by sucking the plant sap, leading to lower yield, while larvae of pink bollworms, which are also a major pest of cotton, feed on seeds and destroy the crops fibre and adversely affects output.

The loss of yield because of infestation of whitefly and pink bollworm discouraged farmers from expanding the cotton acreage, they said.

Another reason behind significant decrease in cotton area was rains at the time of cotton sowing that lead to hard formation of soil. According to officials, showers at the time of cotton sowing affects germination of seeds.

Though farmers over 25,000 hectares of areas in cotton growing places resowed but rains again lashed, forcing them to decide not to cultivate it further.

According to officials, farmers, who did not sow cotton this time, will switch over to basmati and paddy.

Punjab's cotton growing areas are Bathinda, Muktsar, Mansa, Fazilka, Sangrur, Moga and Faridkot.

In the 1990s, Punjab used to have more than 7 lakh hectares of area under cotton but over the past several years, it gradually shrunk.

In 2012-13, the area under cotton was 4.81 lakh hectares, which further dropped to 2.91 lakh hectares in 2017-18.

In 2018-19, the area under cotton was 2.68 lakh hectares. It dropped to 2.48 lakh hectares in 2019-20 and then it was 2.52 lakh hectares and 2.51 lakh hectares in 2020-21 and 2021-22 respectively, as per data available.

Punjab had recorded a yield of 827 kilograms lint per hectare in 2018-19 which went down to 691 kg lint per hectare in 2019-20. It further dropped to 437 kg lint per hectare, said the officials.

Among steps taken by the state government this year to promote cotton sowing, canal water was made available to cotton growing areas up to tail ends from April 1 this year.

A subsidy of 33 per cent was also given on cotton seeds which are certified by the Ludhiana-based Punjab Agricultural University.