Delay in monsoon to hit cotton farming in Balangir July 08, 2011 12:10:13 AM

BHUBANESWAR | Friday, July 8, 2011 | Email | Print | | Back

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Delay in monsoon to hit cotton farming in Balangir
July 08, 2011 12:10:13 AM

SUDHIR MISHRA | Balangir
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With monsoon rain playing hide and seek with farmers bringing inadequate rainfall in June, cotton cultivation is in trouble in Balangir district.

Promoted as the alternative cash crop in the district and dubbed as ‘white gold’ in view of huge economic viability to farmers, cotton crop, which requires less water than paddy, has not progressed significantly in the district this year.

Cotton gets cultivated in 150-180 days and and it requires light sandy soil.

The ideal sowing should have been over by the end of June. However, absence of rainfall has affected the cultivation this year. Against the normal 201 mm rainfall, the district has received 105 mm, almost 50 per cent less than average rainfall. Encouraged by last year’s bumper productions and better remunerative prices, the agriculture officials have set the target of cotton cultivations in 30,000 hectares this year. Till July 4, cotton cultivation in the district has been taken up in 13,600 hectares only.

The ideal sowing of cotton is supposed to be over by June end. The delay in sowing and other process will affect the yield of the crop.

In such a scenario, reports suggest that cotton cultivation has been taken up in Saintala, Titilagarh and Muribahal area. “We advise farmers to go for intercropping rather than single cotton crop to minimise the loss. A farmer should take up cultivation of mung, biri, and cowpea to minimise the loss as after 75 days, there would get an assured source of income,” says an agriculture official here.

As there has been already delay in sowing up cotton, farmers should go for other crops rather than cotton, says an official here. Amidst all this, there are reports that Bt cotton has made entry into the cotton filed of farmers. Reports further reveal that farmers from nearby Andhra Pradesh have taken cotton cultivation in a large part of land in Sonepur district.
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