Huge decline in farmers' enthusiasm and attraction towards cotton cultivation in Punjab

10-Jun-2024 06:11 PM

Muktsar. Looking at the huge decline in the sowing area every year, it seems that farmers in Punjab are getting disillusioned with cotton cultivation and their enthusiasm and attraction is decreasing.

The Punjab government had reduced the target of cotton sowing in the state for the current year to just 2 lakh hectares and the data that came out after the sowing season ended on May 31 shows that far from achieving even this small target,

the total area of ​​cotton in the state could not even reach one lakh hectares. According to official sources, due to various reasons, the area of ​​cotton production in Punjab is decreasing and farmers have started giving priority to moong cultivation instead.

In the year 2022, the target of cotton cultivation was set at 4 lakh hectares, while the actual sowing area was 2.48 lakh hectares. Similarly, in the year 2023, the actual area could reach 1.69 lakh hectares as compared to the target set at 3 lakh hectares.

In the year 2024, a target of sowing cotton in 2 lakh hectares was set but the actual area got stuck at 96,358 hectares. Cotton is cultivated early (in April-May) in Punjab.

Cotton is cultivated mainly in four districts in Punjab - Fazilka, Muktsar, Bhatinda and Mansa, while it is also produced in some quantity in four other districts.

It is noteworthy that in the 90s, cotton was cultivated in more than 7 lakh hectares in Punjab and its sowing started as soon as the harvesting and preparation of wheat crop was over.

But in recent years, due to the severe outbreak of insects and diseases on the crop, farmers started suffering huge financial losses and hence they started losing interest in cotton cultivation. Now his focus has started focusing on the cultivation of moong.