Farmers in Akola used to refer to cotton as “White Gold,” but these days it’s a crop of “compulsion.” Cotton is no longer as economical for farmers in Maharashtra due to high production costs and labor issues.
Ganesh Nanote, an Akola farmer, grows cotton on fifteen of his forty acres in the Barsitakli taluka village of Nimbhara. He says that the crop is nearly non-viable due to the yearly rise in production costs, especially for labor. “But there’s no other choice; urad, tur, and other pulses have issues of their own. Farmers no longer take cotton because they are forced to and no longer make money,”
Due to poor pricing and disappointing harvests, cotton traders across the country are concerned about a 10%–15% reduction in planting area this year. In North India, farmers are choosing paddy over cotton despite the government’s higher Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs 7,121/quintal. This trend is particularly noticeable in this region. The South Asia Biotechnology Centre (SABC) original director, Bhagirath Choudhary, primarily credits the change to the Pink Bollworm infestation (PBW), an infamous pest that damages cotton harvests. “The agriculture department needs to increase awareness among farmers on pest control,”
North Maharashtra’s cotton planting areas have decreased by 20%, according to Pradeep Jain, founder president of the Khandesh Cotton Gin/Press Factory Owners and Traders Development Association. “Yield and pricing were not what farmers had anticipated. A lot of people have switched to other crops like maize and beans,” he says. He predicts a 10% drop in cotton acreage across the country for the next growing season.
