Cotton price keeps sliding down in Adilabad district

‘Yield too has gone down from the average 8 quintals per acre to 5 quintals per acre’

Cotton picked by labourers being weighed for calculating payment near Narnoor in Adilabad district.

There is many a slip between the cup and the lip. Cotton farmers in former composite Adilabad district are now gripped with a reality which is in tune with this old proverb.

Having started kharif season on a positive note, cotton growers are experiencing the vicissitudes that have come to characterise commercial crop cultivation in these parts. Good rainfall, the Rythu Bandhu scheme of investment support by the State government to the tune of ₹4,000 per acre and the ‘high’ minimum support price (MSP) of ₹ 5,450 per quintal could not get them desirable income from agriculture so far.

“Cotton arrivals are pegged at 5.5 lakh quintals so far in the season which is about half the 11.5 lakh quintals recorded during the corresponding period last year at Adilabad Agriculture Market Committee (AMC) yards,” revealed an AMC official of the slack trading.

“The yields have gone down from the average 8 quintals per acre to 5 quintals per acre,” pointed out farmer Addi Ramchander Reddy of Jamidi village in Tamsi mandal as he gave a reason for the much decreased quantum of cotton arrivals.

“The heavy rainfall in August damaged the commercial crop on about 15,000 hectare of the total of 1.4 lakh under cotton cultivation in Adilabad district. The dry spell in September-October had further impacted the yields,” Shiva Kumar, Adilabad Agriculture Officer, stated as he gave reasons for the yields going down drastically.

The last few days of trading has seen the price of cotton getting lowered than the MSP. On December 24, the produce was sold for ₹5,380 per quintal. Farmers look up the Cotton Corporation of India to come foward to purchase cotton under their MSP operations.

“The price of the 'white gold' is unlikely to go up in the open market given the slump in prices of the by-products like cottonseed, oil cake and cottonseed oil,” opined Chitikesi Narsaiah, a cotton commission agent.

“For the price of cotton to be steady and over the MSP, the market rate of cottonseed should be a minimum of ₹ 2,500 per quintal against the current one ranging between ₹1,900 and ₹2,000 per quintal,” he added of the gamut.

Meanwhile, there was some crop damage in the agency areas of erstwhile united Adilabad owing to the untimely rainfall of last week. Tribal farmers usually begin their pickings late and hence the fields in the Agency can be seen laden with opened bolls showing raw cotton.