The drastic fall in yield of cotton has resulted in agriculture labourers losing at least ₹ 1.2 crore in wages pertaining to harvest work in old undivided Adilabad district.
The average yield of the commercial crop has fallen by about 40 % against a normal of 20 quintals per hectare and the total production from the nearly 3.6 lakh hectare of cultivated area is expected to be of roughly of the quantum of 36 lakh quintals only.
According to the trend, labourers are employed for picking of cotton in about two thirds of the total area, while farmer families themselves harvest the crop in the remaining 1.2 lakh hectare that is mostly located in the tribal heartland.
The normal wages for picking cotton are ₹ 5 a kg which usually generate ₹ 2.4 crore as wages but, in the present circumstances, would generate only half of it. “There is hardly any demand for workers owing to the drastic fall in yield. Most of us have uprooted the crop after the first pickings itself as the threat of pink boll worm pest attack also loomed large,” pointed out Addi Ramchander Reddy of Jamidi village in Tamsi mandal of Adilabad district as he talked of the state of the season. Harvesting started in the second half of October and by mid-November it became obvious that the yields would be poor.
Election employment
There would have been a hue and cry over labourers not getting enough work on the fields had the period not coincided with the Assembly election which saw political parties hiring them. Landge Suresh, a migrant labourer from Kinwat in Maharashtra, pointed out that lower yield has farmers preferring deployment of family members for picking cotton even if it means a delay in harvesting and selling the produce. “It reduces the cost for them but scores of labourers from my villages in Maharashtra are returning without any employment because of this trend,” he added.
First picking
In most of the pockets in the Agency areas, farmers have not gone in even for the first picking of the crop. One can find fields in which the ‘white gold’ has fallen on the ground evidently as it has not been picked in time. The loss in wages in the four districts corresponds to the area under cotton cultivation. Of the total of about 3.6 lakh hectare under the commercial crop Adilabad district accounts for 1.42 lakh hectare, Kumram Bheem Asifabad for 0.92 lakh hectare, Mancherial for 0.63 lakh hectare and Nirmal for 0.62 lakh hectare.
