Punjab's area under cotton increases to 6.24 lakh hectares

Chandigarh, May 31 (UNI) Punjab's area under cotton cultivation has touched 6.24 lakh hectares this year after a decade, following a record production of 23.95 lakh bales of cotton in the state last season (2005-06).

This increase in area, from the last year's 5.57 lakh hectares, and the high production were mainly due to the BT Cotton seed which not only gave a high yield but also led to a significant decline in the input costs for the growers, Punjab's Agriculture Joint Director (Cotton) Dr Bains told UNI.

''The cotton growers of Punjab had a sigh of relief after many years as the BT Cotton is resistant to the American ball worm which had been troubling the farmers for many years. They could now save lot of money, which was spent on pesticides earlier,'' he said.

Dr Bains informed that the crop's yield remained significantly high at 731 kg lint per hectare in 2005-06, as compared to 697 kg lint per hectare in 2004-05, 556 in 2003-04 and 410 in 2002-03.

''Practically the area under BT Cotton is now 80 per cent, including those lands where even the non-approved varieties of BT have shown good results,'' he said, adding that the farmers were purchasing several BT varieties from Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Besides 'Rashi' and 'Mico' varieties of Monsanto, 12 new varieties of the BT Cotton seed of other companies have been approved by the Union government. The new approved varieties of BT Cotton seeds introduced in Punjab this season inlcude 6-BT of Nath seeds, JK-1947 BT of JK Agri Genetics and 913 of Nazi Veedu.

The most popular variety, however, remained Rashi RSH-134 of Monsanto this season as well, Dr Bains said.

The arrival of BT Cotton seed in the state two seasons back through Monsanto, was the main reason for the encouraging trend as this resulted in decline in input costs besides yeilding a good crop, he added.

The input costs in cotton cultivation has declined by nearly 40 per cent in the last two seasons mainly due to the fact that the farmers' expenditure on pesticides for the BT Cotton plantation has come to half, Punjab's Agriculture Joint Director (Plant Protection) Dr G S Gill said.

''Earlier a farmer has been spending about Rs 5500 per acre on pesticides but now with the introduction of BT cotton this expenditure has come down to an average of Rs 2500,'' he said.

As per the official figures, the quantity of pesticides sprayed on the cotton plantation last season was 4500 Metric Tonnes Technical Grade Pesticide (MT) as compared to 6487 MT in 2004-05, 6900 MT in 2003-04 and 7200 MT in 2001-02.

The climatic conditions were also very favourable last year, he said, while adding to the reasons for a high production.

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