By P.S. Anantharaman, IANS
Ahmedabad : Gujarat is on the threshold of achieving a landmark in cotton cultivation, with the output expected to cross 10 million bales in the new crop season beginning Oct 1.
While this will reaffirm its number one status in India in terms of cotton, the crop is flourishing at the cost of groundnut and pulses – two essential commodities.
“The state would cross 10 million bales of cotton output in the coming season. Everything is normal and the weather is highly favourable. However, a complete picture will be available only by mid-October,” Himmat Shah, chairman of the Ahmedabad Cotton Association, told IANS.
Arunbhai, a cotton broker in the city, was more optimistic: “With the excellent weather, the increase in acreage alone would guarantee a harvest of 11 million bales in the state.”
He also said with such a bumper crop, Indian cotton export also would increase to about 4.6 million bales.
In the 2006-07 cotton season that ends Aug 31, the state grew 9.3 million bales, followed by Maharashtra with an output of 5.2 million bales and Andhra Pradesh with 3.2 million bales, according to the Cotton Advisory Board.
This has happened in spite of the Gujarat government’s efforts to reduce the focus on cotton with a view to regaining the area under groundnut and pulses that was lost to cotton and reversing the output decline in the two essential commodities.
The total output of cotton in India in the last season was 27 million bales of 170 kg each, compared to 24.4 million bales in the previous season.
Gujarat farmers, encouraged by remunerative earnings, have continued to repose their faith in genetically modified (GM) Bt cotton and as a result the acreage under it increased to 2.5 million hectares.
The switch to cotton, however, has had an adverse impact on the edible oil situation in the state.
Groundnut production fell sharply by about 15 percent in the state last year. As a result, after meeting the export commitments of handpicked and selected (HPS) groundnut and the demand for groundnut kernels, not enough nuts were available for oil crushing operations.
Many of the oil mills in Gujarat operated very much below their installed capacity. This in turn led to a fall in groundnut oil production and unrelenting price increase in the cooking medium. Oil millers in the state expect groundnut oil price to touch Rs.1,500 per 15 kg tin by Diwali this year.