COTTON CULTIVATION 

1. Context 

• The cotton crop area in the coming Kharif Season is diverted into others because of the delayed southwest monsoon turns out less than normal.
• A farmer from Nimbhora village in Maharashtra's Akola district has reasons to limit his area sown under the fibre crop to 8 acres, from 11 acres last year, while keeping the same unchanged at 11 acres for soybean and increasing from zero to 3 acres for tur (pigeon-pea).

2. Relative prices matter

• The first is price: Out of the 100-odd quintals of kapas (raw un-ginned cotton) that Nanote harvested last year sold only 30 at Rs 7, 000-7,200 per quintal this January. The balance of 70 quintals is lying unsold.
• After realising up to Rs 10, 500/ quintal for my 2021 crop,  expected to get at least Rs 9, 000. But the rates are now just Rs 7, 200-7, 400.
• That's still more than the government's minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 6, 620 per quintal for medium-staple fibre kapps declared but below what farmers like he had gotten used to.
• This isn't the case with Tur, currently trading in the Akola market at Rs 9, 700 -9, 800 per quintal, much above its new MSP of Rs 7, 000.
• The farmer's plans for the Inter-crop. For example, planting one row of tur after every three rows of soybean, the latter maturing in 90-100 days and the former in 160-180 days.
• The disappointment with prices which have crashed from the heady highs of last year has led to reducing the cotton area this Kharif.

3. Crop duration

• This links up to the second reason why farmers are not too keen this time on cotton.
• Kapas is a long-duration crop harvested over 4-5 pickings.
• The first picking itself takes 100-120 days with subsequent ones following every 15-20 days.
• That makes it a 160-200 days crop, as against 100-120 days of groundnut and 90-100 days for soybean.
• Farmers sowing the latter have more flexibility, therefore, to take a second crop during the rabi (winter-spring) season.
• Land being available to grow a second crop would be a major consideration for farmers to shift some acreage from cotton to groundnut in Gujarat's Saurashtra belt.
• The temptation will be more this time, as farmers would want to sow jeera (cumin seed) during rabi (October-November), with its prices crossing a record Rs 40, 000-45, 000 per quintal in May.

4. Monsoon Uncertainties

• A third reason for cotton acreage to shift to pulses (particularly tur/arhar in Maharashtra) and oilseeds (groundnut in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh) is the southwest monsoon, which has already missed its normal onset date of June 1 over Kerala.
• The country as a whole received 57.1 per cent less rainfall than the normal the long period average during June 1-7 and most global forecasters predicted unfavourable El Nino conditions to develop by July-August, there is considerable uncertainty over the 2023 monsoon season (June-September).
• Given its long duration and being a relatively water-intensive crop, cotton needs a minimum of 5-6 irrigations, especially during the flowering, bud and boll formation stages.
• Tur is also a long-duration crop but does not need more than 2-3 irrigations. 
• The crop's deep taproot system allows its plants to draw moisture from the soil better than cotton.
• They expect a 10 per cent fall in cotton acreage in the upcoming kharif season: "Both price factor and unfavourable monsoon outlook will play a part. The reduction could be more if rainfall is not good. 
• Only a third of India's cotton areas are under irrigation. The rest is entirely rainfed.
• It was quite the opposite during 2022 kharif when all-time-high prices and good rain made cotton the favourite crop of farmers.
• They sowed a record 126.66 lakh hectares (lh) under the crop, as compared to 118 lh in the previous season.
• On the other hand, pulses registered a dip from 136. 57 lh to 130. 91 lh, while the area under soybean fell marginally from 120.71 lh to 120. 48 lh.