At 3.5L bales, Punjab's cotton production at record low

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, December 16

Cotton production in the state is estimated to be the lowest this year, with production expected to be just 3.5 lakh bales.

Multiple reasons for fall in production

The reason for the fall in the production is reduction in the area under cultivation, attack by pink bollworm and whitefly, and waterlogging in Fazilka and Muktsar in over 11K hectares that destroyed the crop. — Gurwinder Singh, Director Agriculture

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Not only has the production fallen sharply, but commission agents and officials in the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) have complained that the crop is of much poorer quality, with both brightness and length of the fibre being less than what has been previously recorded.

Last year, the cotton production in the state was 6.45 lakh bales, which had fallen from 10 lakh bales in 2020-21.

The cotton production has fallen because of widespread attack of pink bollworm.

“This is the peak time of arrivals, but today, only 80 quintals of cotton arrived in the mandi against 800 quintals a day around this time in the past,” said Rajnish Jain, a commission agent for cotton from Maur.

The lesser availability of cotton and higher demand has led to a gap, for which cotton growers are getting a premium price of Rs 8,500 per quintal this year.

The CCI has reportedly not purchased any cotton from the state, as private traders are paying a price of almost Rs 2,000 per quintal over and above the MSP.

Cotton growers, officials in the Agriculture Department and the CCI said the main reason for the fall in production this year was the fall in acreage under the crop and attack by pink bollworm and whitefly, forcing many farmers to plough back the crop.

However, the widespread unauthorised sale of cotton seeds by some Gujarat-based agents too had led to the poor quality of the crop, they said.

It is learnt that these agents set up mobile shops in their private vehicles and sold the seeds to farmers in the cotton belt, when electioneering for the Assembly polls was at its peak.

A senior officer in the CCI said the length of the fibre that was arriving in mandis of the state was averaging between 25-26 mm, as against required long staple fibre length of 27.5-28.5 mm last year.

Meanwhile, the fall in production and increase in the prices is hitting the cotton ginning industry hard.

There are 81 cotton ginning units in the state, of which a majority have expressed their inability to start operations because of the non-availability of raw cotton.

Bhagwan Bansal, patron of the Punjab Cotton Factories and Ginners Association, said it was important to ensure high-quality seeds and bringing more area under cultivation. “Many units are demanding that they be allowed to convert into rice mills. If proactive steps are not taken, the ginning industry in the state will shut shop,” he said.