Haryana set for bumper cotton harvest

Chandigarh, Nov 23 (UNI) The cotton cultivators of Haryana have a reason to smile as they have obtained a bumper yield of their crop, with the per hectare average yield going upto 500 to 600 kg per hectare (lint) in this kharif season as compared to 437 kg per hectare (lint) of last season.

From 5.33 lakh hectares of cultivated area, cotton production in the state this season is likely to touch 17.21 lakh bales as compared to 14.99 lakh bales last year when the area under this crop was 5.83 lakh hectares.

According to the Agriculture Minister Harmohinder Singh Chatha the highest ever yield of 20.75 lakh bales was achieved in the year 2004-2005. However the area covered in that year was 6.21 lakh hectares which was almost 90,000 hectares more than the area covered during this kharif season.

Mr Chatha attributed the bumper production to increase in area under hybrids and Bt cotton, favourable weather conditions coupled with low incidence of pests and diseases. About 42,000 hectares of area had been covered under Bt cotton and 1.36 lakh hectares under non Bt hybrids.

He informed that the cultivation of Bt cotton was first time commercially introduced during 2005-06 and an area of only 12,000 hectares was covered due to initial apprehensions by farmers.

Nonetheless, the farmers were now in high spirits with the performance of Bt cotton, as not only were the farmers obtaining 5 to 15 per cent higher yield over non Bt cotton but also using less chemical sprays.

He said that thus in view of the prevailing production and productivity status, the earnings of the farmers would range from Rs 8000-10,000 per hectare on variable costs and the net profit of every farmer would depend upon the costs of applied inputs and farm labour employed by them during course of cultivation.

The area under Bt cotton would certainly witness sharp increase in the coming years which would prove immensely beneficial to farmers, he hoped.

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