Cotton planting in the country has doubled in terms of area compared to the same time last year. Over 46 lakh hectares were sown in the cotton growing regions of the country compared to 19 lakh hectares sown at the same time last year. The spike in sowing of cotton is because of an early entry of Monsoon in the country.
Good monsoon rains in June has encouraged farmers to boost cotton sowing. Apart from this, better realization in cotton last Kharif season is also an encouraging factor. This year, most of the Pulses and oil seeds areas have been shifted towards cotton. If sowing goes well at the current pace then a 15%-20% increase in cotton area over last year is anticipated.
Strong domestic prices have influenced the decision of farmers to allocate greater area to cotton. Farmers who opted to soybean and Pulses, competing crops to cotton during 2016-17 are likely to switch back to cotton since the returns from these crops were low despite bumper yields.
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In most of the major cotton producing states, sowing is far ahead than the same time of last year. As in Maharashtra, total 18.87 lakh hectares has been sown against 12.79 lakh hectares sown at the corresponding period last year. In Telangana, total 8.81 lakh hectares has been sown against 8.940 lakh hectares sown at the same time last year. In Haryana, total area sown till date is 6.3 lakh hectares as compared to 5.0 lakh hectares sown at the same time last year. As per reports, this year, cotton area in Haryana may increase further as cotton sowing is still going on in few pockets and total area may reach to 6.5 to 6.8 lakh hectares.
In Punjab, total 3.82 lakh hectares has been sown against 2.56 lakh hectares sown at the same time last year. Sowing is still going on in few pockets of Punjab.
This year sowing is delayed in Gujarat as only 7.07 lakh hectares has been sown against 12.67 lakh hectares sown at the same time last year. The main reason behind the delayed sowing was the delayed rains. Rains were delayed by 8-10 days over the state. Now with good monsoon showers in last week, Sowing has picked up in the state and expected to get complete in next couple of weeks.
Healthy rains so far had precipitated the rate of sowing. Now we need to see if this pace of sowing sustains over the next couple of weeks. Moreover, everything depends on the rains. Higher sowing does not mean higher yield only good rains in the coming months can boost the yield and the production.
Any information taken from here should be credited to skymetweather.com
