Cotton growers in Yadgir are facing loss as copious rainfall proves detrimental to crop

Cotton crop damaged in rain in Yadgir district.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Copious rainfall that lashed Yadgir district in the last couple of days is threatening to harm cotton crop in Yadgir district.

The district experienced torrential rainfall owing to depression, following which cold and cloudy atmosphere prevailed for a few days.

Many of the agricultural fields, particularly cotton fields, are reportedly either inundated or the crop damaged by rain.

The target for sowing cotton in the district for the kharif season was 1,86,296 hectares, of which the area covered is 1,66,662 hectares for 89.46% achievement.

Farmers in many parts of the district, who prepared their land, started sowing immediately after it started raining during the monsoon season, while a few started their operations later due to a shortage of rain mid-monsoon.

Therefore, cotton crop is in different stages of growth. Those who started early are harvesting the crop now and, in many places, the crop has reached maturity.

Fresh rainfall and water accumulated in the fields may possibly affect the lower buds of the cotton tree and cause an impact on yield.

“Continuous showers threaten cotton crop. The early rain before and after the onset of monsoon was favourable and as a result, farmers took up sowing on a large-scale. If there were to be no rain now, a majority of farmers would have harvested their crop,” farmer Mallikarjun Patil said.

Meanwhile, a price crash in the open market is also causing trouble to cotton growers. Now, the price for cotton is hovering between ₹6,130 and ₹6,500 per quintal based on quality.

When compared to expenditure incurred on buying sowing seeds, fertilisers, chemicals, weeding and labour charges, this price is not profitable.

However, farmers, who have harvested cotton, are transporting it to the market, though the rate is unacceptable to them, due to various reasons, including loan repayment.

“The only solution for the problem is to bring a law on minimum support price (MSP) for farm produce. If the Central government enacts a law fixing prices for every produce, farmers then will be assured of benefits when they sell their produce wherever they want, either at the APMC Yard or to private traders,” honorary president of Karnataka Rajya Raita Sangha Chamaras Malipatil said.