Rain brings cheer to cotton growers

Perneet Singh

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, June 17

A spell of rainfall in the region on Sunday has brought cheers to the cotton farmers who were worried about their crop due to alleged curtailment of canal water supply as well as the dusty weather conditions prevailing over the last few days.

Talking to The Tribune, former North India Cotton Association (NICA) president Ashok Kapur said: “The rainfall certainly bodes well for the cotton crop. The hot weather conditions in the previous days were proving harmful for it. The rain has come as a much needed respite for the cotton farmers.” He felt that the state could not afford any damage to cotton crop, as already the area under cotton had come down to around 3 lakh hectares this year. He said weather plays a crucial role in deciding the cotton yield.

Paramjeet Singh Brar, Chief Agriculture Officer, Mansa, said the rainfall brought in dual advantage for the cotton farmers. “Firstly, it will protect their crop from whitefly attack and secondly, they will not have to apply any spray. The dust that had enveloped the region over the last three to four days was adversely affecting the crop, but that too has settled after the rain,” he said.

Shingara Singh Mann of BKU Ekta Ugrahan said: “The rainfall was very much required for the cotton crop, particularly at a time when the farmers were bearing the brunt of the state government move to curtail canal water supply to dissuade farmers from sowing paddy before June 20.” He said the farmers were a harried lot, as they were not getting adequate water to save their cotton crop from hot weather conditions. The situation was worse in the tail-end villages of the region, he added.

Kulwant Singh, a farmer from Bathinda, said: “I have sown cotton on 5 acres with great difficulty as the canal water supply was facilitated last month only. The crop was reeling under adverse weather conditions over the last few days, but rainfall has allayed our concerns.”

It is pertinent to mention here that the state’s area under cotton cultivation has come down to around 3 lakh hectares as compared to 3.83 lakh hectares last year and much below the Agriculture Department’s target of 4 lakh hectares.