Unlike last year, the State Government is not putting in any effort to wean away farmers from cultivating cotton in the ensuing kharif season. Its reluctance is understandable given the ‘success’ recorded by this major cash crop in the just ended season.
This instance, the area under cotton is likely to go up from the over 2.5 lakh hectare sown last year in the four districts which constituted undivided Adilabad, against a normal area of 3.3 lakh hectare.
Anticipating this phenomenon, the Agriculture Department in all the districts has made suitable preparations.
For example, the department in Adilabad district has plans to make available cotton seed to be sufficient for sowing on 1.10 lakh hectare though it was restricted to about 98,000 hectare last season. The actual area could in fact turn out to be more than the normal of 1.28 lakh hectare given the mood of farmers.
“Farmers are not likely to heed if the government gives a call to decrease cotton cultivation now. It had promoted alternate crops like soyabean which turned out to be a disaster,” opined Adivasi farmer Purka Manohar from Markaguda in Indervelli mandal of Adilabad district as he summed up the mood of farmers, many of whom had missed out on making profits having gone in for alternate crops.
Those farmers who ignored the government’s advice and cultivated cotton stood to gain a lot. They made some profits after a long duration.
As the initial projection of a dismal season for cotton last year turned out to be false, farmers reaped bumper yields which was around 10 quintals per acre at the minimum. The ‘white gold’ also commanded a high price of ₹5,200 per quintal on an average in markets across the four districts.
Less suicides
Conforming with the trend, there were lesser number of suicides of cotton farmers last kharif, especially after December when it became clear that farmers would reap a good harvest.
Usually, the number of suicides by cotton farmers increases November onwards when it is time for harvest.
According to statistics put out by the Police Department, as many as 91 cotton farmers committed suicide between the months of June and March in 2014-2015, 18 of them being reported between January and March 2015. In the following year, a total of 48 farmers committed suicide during the same period but 23 of these occurred in the first three months of 2016.
The number of suicides in 2016-2017 is 35, 17 of which were recorded between January and March this year. Almost all of these farmers had actually lost their crop during the initial months of the season.
