Cotton picking begins early

Commercial operations of cotton will start 20 days in advance first time in the Telangana state after 10 years, in the wake of early cotton picking and arrivals of cotton produce this Kharif. Commercial operations of cotton in the state may begin before September 25 this season, instead of the usual October 20.

Farmer leaders say there has been good growth of cotton plants this season in the Adilabad district due to timely rains and farmers in few villages have even started picking cotton, plants of which were sown during pre-monsoon or earlier.  

Farmer’s leader B. Goverdhan Reddy said marketing minister T. Harish Rao recently asked the marketing and CCI officials in a meeting to advance the cotton purchases 20 days. Seven new cotton purchasing centres, including Gudihatnoor of Adialabad would be set up for that season.

Rangineni Satishrao, big farmer of Guda village in Jainad mandal, said few farmers who sowed cotton during pre-monsoon period or earlier have already started picking cotton in their fields in Lingi and Kuchulapur villages in Talamadugu mandal and will incur loss if there is any delay in cotton purchases as the cotton purchases as the cotton might get discolored and get damp due to the humid weather.

Commercial operations of cotton are being advanced for 20 days forest time in the last 10 years. It happened previously in 2003-04 and 1996-97, he reminded. The cotton crop ripes in 90-100 days and the early operations will help farmers harvest cotton early. 

He said the conditions for growing cotton were good in Adilabad district but situation was different in Karimnagar, Nizamabad and Warangal.

Adilabad district officials have decided to convene a meeting with leaders of farmers, owners of ginning and pressing factories and CCI officials on September 6 to take the stock of the situation and preparations done to start commercial operation of cotton.

Minister Jogu Ramanna said Transco officials will be directed to supply power  to the cotton ginning and pressing factories from much earlier instead October 23 every year to start the commercial operation .

Good growth of cotton, soya brings cheer to farmers

After a gap of thee years, cotton and soya farmers are elated over good growth of the plants due to timely rains and they are expecting good yield this season unlike like last three seasons.

But, the cultivation area has come down when compared to expected area due to huge delay in monsoon. Rain fed crops got sufficient rainfall in Kharif but paddy suffered a lot.     

Farmers say that the timely rains saved their crops otherwise the situation would be worst, as they had lost three successive seasons due to drought conditions and incurred huge loss.

Cotton farmers were busy in operations of weeding and spraying chemicals to the plants. On the other hand, farmers did not get institutional financial support this season and not much benefit out of crop loan wavier by the state government.

At many places, bankers did not give crop loan to the tenant farmers as usual this season also despite having eligibility certificates issued to the tenant farmers by the state government.

Meanwhile, paddy cultivation has begun little late waiting for rains and gradually picked up the paddy operations across the district.

There was a lot of confusion in disbursement of fresh crop loans to the farmers by the bankers and no authority was ready to clear the doubts raised on crop loans and crop loan waiver and charging interest by the farmers. 

Various crops were cultivated only in 5.10 lakh hectors against the expected area 5.70 lakh hectares in the district in Kharif. Cotton was sown in 3.15 lakh hectares against 3.50 lalkh hectares and Soya in 93,000 hectares against 1.25 lakh hectare and paddy in 14,000 hectares against he expected 56,000 hectares while Redgram in 46,000 hectares where as the expected area was just 42,000 hectares in the district.

According to official sources out of total 52 mandals, 14 mandals were facing deficit rainfall , 19 mandals received excess rainfall and Jannaram, Madamarri and  Kasipet mandals were facing scanty rainfall. There was 20 percent deficit of rainfall as only 596.2 mm rain fall received against the 743.4 mm rainfall by this time in the district.      

Farmer J. Dashrath of Ichoda expressed happiness over growth the cotton plants due to timely rains unlike in the last three seasons and hoped that they would get good yield this time.

Only 50% amount released for crop loan waiver

The state government has released only 50 percent amount of the second installment towards crop loan waiver (that is 12.5 percent in the 25 percent as each installment).

They communicated to the bankers and agriculture department that the balance 12.5 percent in the 2^nd installment of crop loan waiver will be released in the second week of July. With this, the hopes of the farmers who were waiting for crop loans have crashed.

It is said that this unexpected development will have its impact on disbursement of crop loan waiver to the farmers to this Kharif season. The state government has released Rs 182.76 crore towards crop loan waiver instead Rs 365 crore as second installment in Adilabad  district.           

Cotton yield drops by 60 pc in Kharif

Cotton farmers are the worst hit this kharif what with the cotton bolls getting withered due to pest attack in the Adilabad district which might lead to a drastic fall in the yield.

Cotton was sown in 3.33 lakh hectares in Adilabad district this karif and some of the farmers were even forced to go for sowing for a fourth time due to drought conditions which resulted in a rise in the investments. 

However, the problems of the farmers continued even when the plants were growing.

The dry weather and erratic power supply led to damage of the standing crop. Farmers are likely to get only 30-40 percent yield this kharif which might not enable them get back the invested amount at least, forget about the profits.

Further, the low price being offered by the private cotton traders is adding to their woes. The private traders are offering just Rs 3,700 per quintal cotton while the farmers had invested nearly Rs 20,000 on cultivation of the crop in an acre.

When provided with the irrigation facility, farmers used to get an average of 10 quintals cotton per acre in the black soil but this year, they might get only 4-5 quintals.

In a rain-fed land, farmers used to get 4 quintals of cotton but this year, they are expected to get only 2 quintals per acre which means they would be forced incur a loss of Rs 10,000 per acre.  

Kodicharla Vishswanath, a farmer of Anandpur village in Jainad madnal, said there was only 2 quintals yield per acre in his three- acre cotton farm and that he had suffered huge loss this season.

Similar situation is prevailing in many places in Adilabad division, where cotton cultivation is predominant, even though it was grown in other areas in the district.

It is only handful of farmers, having adequate irrigation facilities, who got a considerable yield in Tamsi, Talamadugu, Jainad and Adilabad mandals.

The late sowing and drought conditions affected the growth of the cotton plants, bolls and it even delayed the harvesting.