While there are expectations of more nationwide cotton acreage this year as compared to last year, given the steep rise in prices, the cumulative area sown in North India till date has been affected due to non-availability of sufficient irrigation.
The acreage in Rajasthan and Haryana has come down, while Punjab has seen an addition of only 29,000 hectares (ha). The North India Cotton Association says the total area under cotton in these three nothern states is 1.305 million ha on date, a decline of 142,000 ha from the 1.447 million ha of 2009-10. The crop is irrigation-based in these three states; sowing starts by mid-April and the majority of it is over by the second week of June.
The area under cotton in Haryana and Rajasthan has fallen to 450,000 ha and 330,000 ha in Kharif 2010 from 507,000 ha and 444,000 ha, respectively, in 2009. It has increased in Punjab, to 525,000 hectares as against 496,000 hectares last year, though analysts had earlier been expecting more to be sown.
“There was non-availability of canal water, especially in Hayana and Rajasthan,” said Rakesh Rathi, president, NICA. Earlier, the cotton body was expecting a 5-10 rise in the acreage. Considering the fall in acreage, the cotton production in North India may dip to 3.5-3.7 million bales (a bale is 170 kg) this cotton marketing year from the previous year’s level of four million bales.
However, cotton traders and government officials estimate a rise in the country’s total cotton acreage. Sowing in major growing state such as Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh has begun.
“Around 30,00,000 hectares of land has been covered under cotton crop in the entire country,” said Arun Dalal, owner of an Ahmedabad-based cotton trading firm.