Cotton Area Likely To Decrease By 20% In Adilabad

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Cotton Area Likely To Decrease By 20% In Adilabad

The area under cotton is likely to be reduced by at least 20% in many cotton rich mandals in Adilabad in kharif 2016 if the preliminary trends of sowing are any indication. The Agriculture Department however, is hopeful of about 1 lakh hectares of a total of about 3.4 lakh hectares under cotton being converted to pulses and soyabean. "The sowing trends available from across the district suggest that the area under pulses like redgram, blackgram and greengram will double. It will be an increase of about 50,000 hectares cumulatively," pointed out, Adilabad Agriculture Officer (Technical) Shiv Kumar as he went over statistics. The shift from cotton to pulses and soyabean is being observed mainly in the mandals of Jainad, Bela, Tamsi, Talamadugu, Bhainsa, Mudhole, Kuntala, Tanur and Kubeer. The mandals in Sirpur Assembly constituency will see a major increase in soyabean area this kharif.

Cotton farmer P. Sanjiv Reddy from Talamadugu mandal head quarter village, a prime cotton growing area in the district, concurs with the Agriculture Department so far as decrease in cotton area is concerned. He says farmers in his mandals are going for redgram as intercrop in cotton, redgram fetched a good price in the previous season. The trends from the backward mandals which have a large chunk of its population mired in poverty nevertheless, are contraindicative. The pattern of crop loaning in these mandals, especially in the tribal area says the poor farmers are unable to wriggle out of the compulsion to grow cotton. "Yes, our loaning so far has been for cotton by and large," says a senior banker in the advances section of Telangana Grameena Bank as he talks of the trend. "The small farmer cannot afford to draw lower amounts as loans as he needs money for personal consumption too," he pointed out towards the one factor which defines agriculture in poverty ridden areas.