Pulses, oilseeds area to bloom at cotton’s cost

The area under cotton that was a record 12.97 million hectares last year is set to see some stiff competition from crops such as pulses and oilseeds (soyabean and groundnut) this year during kharif sowing, mainly in central India and Gujarat.

Reason: the bullish trend witnessed in prices of pulses and soyabean in the recent months may prompt farmers to shift acreages.

“There is a lot of interest for red gram (tur) among farmers as prices are ruling high. We expect red gram acreage to go up as farmers are likely to plant it more intensely as an inter-crop with cotton,” said KR Kranthi, Director of Nagpur-based Central Institute for Cotton Research Institute (CICR).

Apart from the prevailing price of competitive crops ahead of the planting season, the rising labour cost is the other factor that could influence the farmers’ decisions as they would prefer crops that are relatively less labour-intensive.

Labour cost

Cotton, which requires 100 to 110 man days of labour per hectare, is considered labour-intensive compared with soyabean or pulses, which require 15-20 man days and 35 man days respectively, Kranthi said.

He expects the overall acreage of cotton, sown during the kharif season, to be around 12 million hectares this year.

The Saurashtra region, considered as the cotton hub of the country, is set to see a significant portion of farmers opting out of the fibre crop and turn to other alternatives such as groundnut, sesamum or pulses (mainly moong or urad). Sowing will begin from June and will continue till September-end.

Farmers said cotton cultivation has led to losses and uncertainty. Cotton fetched them an average of ₹900 for a maund of 20 kg, which was lower than the average cost of around ₹1,000.

“We have seen two consecutive uncertain years in cotton. Returns are less than what we spend for cultivation. The labour cost formed 25 per cent of our cost. So we incurred losses. This year, we will not take up cotton but will go for either groundnut or sesamum, where returns are better and other costs are less,” said Mukeshbhai Lakhani, a farmer in Visavadar taluka of Junagadh District.

Notably, in past two years, cotton acreage had seen a sharp surge in Junagadh, Porbandar, Jamnagar and Gir-Somnath districts, considered as groundnut heartland.

“The major fall in cotton area may be seen in these regions as that has been historically groundnut stronghold and people would prefer to return to groundnut. Those who have lost heavily would not even have money to buy the seeds for cotton. Hence, they would take up cheaper crops such as urad, moong or sesamum,” said Ramesh Bhorniya, a farmer in Rajkot. MB Lal, Managing Director of Shail Exports, said the acreage could come down by about 10-15 per cent across the country due to low prices.

Exporter “Earlier, we were expecting a 30 per cent decline in area, but due to the recent improvement in prices, the drop in acreage could be lower than expected. But it is too early to comment,” Lal said. The lack of international demand, largely from China, is not supporting the fibre prices.

In central India, though soyabean yields got affected last year due to the unseasonal rains, the recent uptrend in prices is likely to attract farmers’ to the oilseed.

Davish Jain, Chairman of Soyabean Processors Association of India said the acreages this kharif could be saame as last year.

“We expect a normal sowing and that would largely depend on the timely arrival and distribution of monsoon,” Jain said.

Cotton planting is already on in the northern States of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan and trends indicate that the acreages are unlikely to see a change in the region.

Cotton was planted on 1.5 million hectares in North India, while in Maharashtra and Gujarat, the acreages last year stood at over 4 and 3 million hectares respectively.