The cotton acreage in India is likely to see a decline of about 15 percent, with farmers shifting to oilseeds and pulses cultivation in several parts of India.

Though it had expected to top last year’s area of 129 lakh hectares, the cottonseed industry now says it will be lower. “We are hoping to close the season with about 4.20-4.30 crore packets (of 450 gm each) this year as against the average sales of 5-5.5 crore packets,” a seed industry executive has said.

 

M Prabhakara Rao, President of the National Seed Association of India (NSAI), said that the shift from cotton happened due to low yields and the damages caused due to pink bollworm attack. “These two factors had resulted in low prices discouraging farmers to move away from cotton,” he said.

 

The cotton acreage last year stood at about 130 lakh hectares last year as against 134 lakh hectares in the previous year.

 

Source: thehindubusinessline.com