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Cotton loses its ‘most profitable crop’ tag in Andhra Pradesh’s undivided Kurnool district
Reorganisation of the district, which once accounted for 70% of the State’s total yield, has sent the cultivable area to rainfed Kurnool, where the acreage has plummeted for more reasons than one, including failure of Bt transgenic to offer protection from pink bollworm
Cotton cultivation in the undivided Kurnool district has seen an alarming dip in the recent years, causing concern among both the farming community and scientific fraternity.
The district once accounted for almost 70% of the State’s total cotton yield, and its natural-coloured produce had huge export potential.
The Mungari variety had a history of cultivation since the early 1900s and was even hailed as ‘white gold’.
The average yield had ranged between 10 quintals and 25 quintals per acre during the 1990s, thanks to the presence of dominant hybrids such as Mallika, Bunny, Brahma, NHH-44, etc. The introduction of transgenic cotton during the period 2002-2006 initially appeared encouraging.
But cotton no more possesses the coveted ‘most profitable crop’ tag, owing to a variety of reasons.
The reorganisation of Kurnool district two years ago had sent most of the cotton-growing area to the rainfed Kurnool. While the present-day Kurnool witnessed a 26% reduction, from 2.50 lakh hectares to the actual sown area of 1.83 lakh hectares in 2023-24, Nandyal was much worse at a whopping 70% fall, from 25,586 hectares to an abysmal 7,932 hectacres.
Considered a cash crop, the attractive price should normally lure farmers to lap it up in a big way. It, however, turned out to be a disincentive over the last decade in view of the late initiation and early withdrawal of monsoon, not to mention of the unexpected cyclones witnessed during October-November due to climate change.
Pest menace
Another important factor is the incidence of pink bollworm in the last decade due to failure of Bt transgenic to offer protection due to development of resistance by this dreaded pest.
“Similarly, tobacco streak virus has also added to the woes of the cotton farmers in Kurnool and Nandyal districts,” observes M. Sivarama Krishna, Scientist (Entomology) at the Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Nandyal.
In Nandyal district
As a result, more farmers are abandoning cotton crop and switching over to the remunerative short-duration crops such as maize and soyabean. The migration from cotton is too conspicuous in Nandyal, where farmers have assured irrigation water facilities such as Kurnool-Cuddapah Canal and Telugu Ganga Canal, but their counterparts in the rainfed Kurnool are stuck with the menace, with no alternative in sight.
Dr. Sivarama Krishna points to growing medium to short duration and early- maturing Bt hybrids (150 days), following strict crop-free period of six months, off-season management of pink bollworm using mating disruption technology as possible measures to address the issue.
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Andhra Pradesh
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Agriculture