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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Whitefly fear: Cotton acreage drops to 61-year low -Ikhhlaq Aujla

Whitefly fear: Cotton acreage drops to 61-year low -Ikhhlaq Aujla

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published Published on Jul 10, 2016   modified Modified on Jul 10, 2016
-The Times of India

CHANDIGARH: Fear of another attack of whitefly pest, which ravaged huge tracts of cotton last year in Punjab, has led to biggest drop in area under cotton cultivation in Punjab in more than six decades. Data from Union agriculture ministry's department of economics and statistics (DES) shows that area under cotton crop this season has shrunk to 2.56 lakh hectares in the state, the lowest since 1955-56. Not surprisingly, cotton output from Punjab in 2015-16 plummeted to nine lakh bales (1 bale=170kg) from 12 lakh bales in the previous season.

In 2015-16, Punjab had 4.50 lakh hectares under cotton crop. The drop in acreage is a massive 43.11% in just one year with wary farmers shifting to other crops. This had not happened even in the 1990s and early 2000s when cotton crop was devoured by American bollworm in successive years in Punjab. At the time, area under cotton never dropped below four lakh hectares.

This year too, whitefly has attacked cotton in few pockets of Fazilka, Mansa and Bathinda districts, leading to many scared farmers ploughing their fields. Most of them shifted over to water-guzzling paddy to avoid losses for the second successive year.

Cotton acreage in neighbouring Haryana has also declined, but the drop is not as sharp. According to Haryana agriculture department officials, cotton has been sown over five lakh hectares this year as against 5.8 lakh hectares in 2015-16, a decline of about 13.8%.

Cotton is the second biggest kharif crop of Punjab after paddy and has been the major driver of farmers' economy in the Malwa region since the past six decades. According to data from the Cotton Advisory Board (CAB), Punjab was the ninth biggest producer of cotton in the country last season.

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The Times of India, 10 July, 2016, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/Whitefly-fear-Cotton-acreage-drops-to-61-year-low/articleshow/53135445.cms


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