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The Business Line July 15, 2019 Rutam Bora As yields plummet experts emphasis use of New Gen seeds, better farm practices urged Pest menace and poor farm management, coupled with water scarcity and lack of push for new seed varieties are reducing cotton yields, thereby threatening the future of the country’s cotton production. Repeated pest attacks, including pink bollworm (Pectinophora gossypiella), spotted bollworm (Earias insulana) and American bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera), and other climatic diseases affect cotton fields across India.Experts have voiced concern over the future of cotton production in the country. India’s per hectare productivity of cotton during 2018-19 works out to merely 420.72 kg per hectare or (2.47 bales per hectare), the Cotton Association of India (CAI) has said. Cotton crop is estimated to be the lowest in more than a decade at 312 lakh bales (each of 170 kg) for the 2018-19 season. “Cotton productivity in India this year is the lowest in a d...

Swarajyamag July 13, 2019 M.R. Subramani The seed industry, which has been growing phenomenally over the last few years, may be in for a slowdown. This is owing to a moratorium on field trials of genetically modified crops.  One of the sectors that has seen phenomenal growth in the last few years is the seed industry. Its growth is the main reason why production of crops, including horticulture and floriculture, in the country has been setting new records every year. Reference-  https://swarajyamag.com/economy/policy-challenged-agri-seed-companies-cut-down-rd-spends-on-hybrids-gm-crops

The Business Line April 16, 2019 Cotton farmers in the region are unable to recover even their cultivation costs Ramkrishna Patil Khute from Pota village in Buldhana district in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra has over 65 acres of farmland, which he cultivates along with his two brothers. In a State where the average farmland holding is less than five acres, Khute holds 13 times more land. In spite of his landholding, the 50-year-year cotton farmer is depressed about crops on his farm as rains were inadequate in the last two years in Vidarbha. The Vidarbha region occupies the whole of eastern Maharashtra and is divided into 11 districts. For the last 20 years, the region is in news due to recurring droughts and farmer suicides. In 2018, rains were sub-normal until early June in Vidarbha, but on June 6 and 7, Nagpur city and the surrounding region saw 265 MM of rainfall. After that, for about a week, many areas of Vidarbha reported very heavy rainfall. It rain...

The Business Line April 15, 2019 Monsoon to determine farmers preference to grow more cotton next year India’s cotton crop production may fall 7.87 per cent to 343 lakh bales (of 170 kg each) in the 2018-19 season, mainly due to drought in many cotton-growing regions, as per estimates released Monday by CITI. Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) Chairman Sanjay Jain told PTI the cotton crop output for the previous season ended September 2018 was 370 lakh bales, adding that the worst output in the past 12 years stood at 348 lakh bales, higher than the current season’s projection of 343 lakh bales. The domestic textile industry body based the projections on actual data collected from cotton-growing areas for the October-September 2018 crop season. The Cotton Advisory Board had estimated the cotton crop to be 361 lakh bales on November 22, 2018. Jain said drought in many cotton-growing regions of Gujarat, a few regions of Maharashtra and a few areas ...

Business line April 10,2019 A sustained rally in cotton prices following weak crop prospects has started getting reflected in cottonseed prices as well, making cattlefeed (cottonseed cake) and edible oil (cottonseed oil) costlier. According to ginners, cotton seed prices have jumped about 25 per cent within a month’s time — from ₹2,400 a quintal in March to ₹3,000 now. “We typically see cottonseed prices rising near the end of the season, around July. But this time, the prices have started going up now and may further go up, making cattlefeed and cottonseed oil costlier,” said Bachubhai Antrolia, a ginner in Manavadar, Junagadh district. After the ginning process, cotton fibre is separated from the seed and the seed is then processed to make cake and oil. Cottonseed yields about 85 per cent cattlefeed or cake and about 15 per cent oil. According to Antrolia, a sharp increase in cotton prices has resulted in pricing disparity, and the units have had to trim their ope...

Livemint July 10,2018 Sayantan Bera A high-level expert panel set up by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has found that nearly 15% area under cotton was planted with illegally produced and unapproved herbicide tolerant (HT) seeds in the 2017 kharif crop season. Not only is this creating an unregulated market for genetically modified (GM) seeds, it is potentially harmful to the environment because it entails use of herbicides which are otherwise restricted. At the same time, given that these seeds are not approved by the regulator there is every chance the seeds, which are expensive, could lead to crop failure, increasing the downside risks to farmers—cotton farming has witnessed the highest number of suicides. The Field Inspection and Scientific Evaluation Committee, or FISEC, under the department of biotechnology was set up by the PMO in October last year, after reports emerged that farmers are using unapproved genetically modified HT cotton seeds to save on labour ...

Livemint July 10,2018 Sayantan Bera A high-level expert panel set up by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has found that nearly 15% area under cotton was planted with illegally produced and unapproved herbicide tolerant (HT) seeds in the 2017 kharif crop season. Not only is this creating an unregulated market for genetically modified (GM) seeds, it is potentially harmful to the environment because it entails use of herbicides which are otherwise restricted. At the same time, given that these seeds are not approved by the regulator there is every chance the seeds, which are expensive, could lead to crop failure, increasing the downside risks to farmers—cotton farming has witnessed the highest number of suicides. The Field Inspection and Scientific Evaluation Committee, or FISEC, under the department of biotechnology was set up by the PMO in October last year, after reports emerged that farmers are using unapproved genetically modified HT cotton seeds to save on labour ...

Anita Chester: Business Line: June 25, 2018 I n India, there is an urgent need for a shift towards ecologically and financially sustainable cotton India is the largest producer of cotton and the crop is of significant importance to the economy. Closely woven into the cotton story is the fate of over 6 million small and marginal farmers who plant this crop annually. However, today, we have reached a point of inflection. The so-called successes of past decades heralded by the hasty adoption of transgenic Bt technology are being eclipsed by the recurrence of pest attacks, worsened by unsustainable land and water use. The growing resistance to pests, such as the pink bollworm, and an alarming rise of secondary pests, suggests that there has been an increase of pesticide use. Other factors like erratic rainfall, poor extension services, dubious seed quality and lack of credit at reasonable rates, aggravate and worsen the situation for farmers who are not able to cover the ...