Tap cotton’s potential to turn over a new leaf

Infocus: Agriculture — Crop diversification 

Baldev Singh Dhillon

THE most serious challenge confronting Punjab’s agriculture, besides the livelihood of farmers and farm labour, is the depletion of underground water resources. Twenty-nine per cent of the area in the state is irrigated by canals and 71 per cent by tubewells. As per ‘Water Resources of Punjab’ (as on March 31, 2017), at the present rate of extraction, the available groundwater resources may exhaust in 20 to 25 years. 

To meet these contingencies and minimise the adverse impact of intensive crop cultivation based on rice-wheat cropping on the environment, soil health and soil microflora, there is an urgent need for diversification. Both these crops have advantages over most of the alternative crops: high yield potential, stable performance under vagaries of the weather, assured marketing and almost end-to-end mechanisation. Further, climate volatility, particularly erratic rainfall, is working in favour of rice compared to competing crops. Standing water in the field after heavy rainfall causes minimal damage to rice, but substantial damage or even crop failure in other crops. During drought years, farmers divert all irrigation resources to rice at the cost of other crops. This leads to higher rice yields during drought years compared to rainy ones, because of more sunshine hours and better nutrient and weed management.

It is, therefore, an uphill task to diversify the rice-wheat cropping system. The rice crop is the main culprit for stress on underground water resources. From the angle of national food security, it is not feasible nor desirable for Punjab to completely abandon rice cultivation. A step-wise movement is necessary to reduce rice area to a level (13-14 lakh hectares) supported by our water resources, accompanied by the promotion of water-saving technologies in various crops, particularly rice.

The alternative crops are cotton, kharif maize, arhar, moong, mash, groundnut, vegetables (chilli, onion, okra, brinjal, cucurbits) and fruits. Among these crops, only cotton has reasonable marketing support, though not as good as that of wheat and rice. The Cotton Corporation of India enters the market when prices fall below the MSP. Cotton has good global demand and India is already exporting it. With respect to the economic returns, it generally competes with rice except when it suffers due to insect-pests, diseases and inclement weather. There have been epidemics of mealy bug in 2007, whitefly in 2015 and pink bollworm in 2021, which caused huge losses.

Maize is another important crop, but it is not a good candidate because of lower yield and price. The market price of maize sometimes falls to 50-60 per cent of the MSP. The maize processing industry, including that for ethanol production and animal feed, needs to be developed speedily to create a market for enhanced production of maize grain.

India has large domestic demand for oilseeds and pulses. But arhar, moong, mash and groundnut are poorer competitors than even maize. These crops have very low yields, an unstable market, and are also more prone to vagaries of the weather, insect-pest incidence and diseases. All these crops, except cotton, need policy support to minimise price volatility.

Some baby steps for crop diversification are proposed below:

• Ensure the availability of quality seed, pesticides and other inputs. Cotton seed, which is produced in central and southern states, should be checked for approved hybrids and pest infestations.
• Conduct surveillance of insect-pests and diseases and take quick timely action if any exigency arises. Sexpheromone traps be used to monitor bollworms with the initiation of the flowering stage, i.e. Sticka/Delta trap for pink bollworm and Sleeve/Moth trap for American bollworm and spotted bollworm. Yellow traps should also be installed for monitoring of whitefly.
• Special attention be paid to pink bollworm infestation. Oil mills/ginneries should be kept under strict watch throughout the year as these are the major source of infestation due to hibernating pink bollworm in cotton seed.
• Timely sowing and availability of canal water enhances germination and growth. Therefore, canal water be made available in early April.
• Launch a special programme with twin objectives of (i) reducing rice area to stabilise the performance of cotton crop and (ii) increasing area under desi cotton. Rice is also cultivated in the cotton belt in adjoining fields that makes the cotton crop more vulnerable to diseases and pests due to humid micro-environment created by standing water in rice fields.
• There are five development blocks in the state wherein cotton is the main kharif crop, followed by rice — Sangat and Talwandi Sabo in Bathinda, Jhunir in Mansa and Abohar and Khuian Sarwar in Fazilka. The incidence of cotton leaf curl virus (CLCV), which is associated with the infestation of whitefly, is generally noticed first in Khuian Sarwar block. The CLCV-whitefly complex causes serious damage. A recent example is the whitefly epidemic of 2015. The programme to replace rice with cotton, especially desi cotton, may be launched in this block. Desi cotton is known to be tolerant to the CLCV and whitefly but has marginally lower yield and MSP and higher picking cost compared to narma. Thus, the programme needs financial support, besides intensive campaigning for mass awareness.  Seed of both narma and desi cotton may be supplied free of cost in the villages having sizeable area under rice, and marketing support may be provided to make desi cotton cultivations as remunerative as narma. This may not involve high cost as Khuian Sarwar has only 11,475 hectares (17.9% of cultivable area) under rice and 804 hectares (1.2%) under desi cotton during the TE 2020-21, whereas narma was cultivated on 28,812 hectares (44.9%). 

Crop diversification and water-saving need bold policy decisions, including crop area planning. It will require financial support so that the livelihood of the farmers is not adversely affected. Intensive campaigning by all departments and institutions concerned to create mass awareness can be the key to success.

The author is former VC, PAU, Ludhiana