The cotton arrival trend in Punjab has taken a sharp hit this season, with market arrivals by November 30 plunging to less than a fifth of the 2023 figure when over 5 lakh quintals arrived in the market.
The decline follows a significant drop in the cotton cultivation area during the kharif season, which fell to an all-time low of approximately 95,000 hectares due to persistent pest attacks since 2021.
Punjab Mandi Board data reveals that the key kharif crop has recorded its slowest arrival in seven years (since 2018), with only 1.23 lakh quintals reaching markets by November 30. Even as the experts were hoping for an improvement in production.
Known as ‘white gold,’ cotton remains the economic backbone of Punjab’s semi-arid regions. Officials claim that private buyers are buying the produce above the minimum support price (MSP), with long staple cotton fetching over ₹7,020 per quintal and medium staple reaching ₹7,271 per quintal.
The Cotton Corporation of India (CCI), a central agency that buys cotton when rates are dropped below the MSP, has not entered the market indicating that the purchase trend is in favour of farmers.
Industry experts say that farmers may be holding onto their cotton crops in anticipation of higher rates due to lower production.
Last year, 15.73 lakh quintals of cotton were purchased across the mandis in the Malwa region.
However, the current arrival trends have raised concerns among the experts as the kharif crop has suffered poor yields for the fourth consecutive season this year.
Gurnam Singh, Muktsar chief agriculture officer and nodal officer for cotton-growing districts, on Tuesday said that there was no pest infestation this year and an initial evaluation suggested that despite a significant reduction in acreage, overall production may be encouraging.
“Inadequate rainfall and insufficient care of farms by cotton growers resulted in a disappointing season. The state authorities have yet to decide on a course of action to boost the cultivation of this traditional crop in Punjab’s arid regions,” Singh added.
Vinay Pathania, assistant professor (plant protection) at Bathinda Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), said that initially whitefly was found in the cotton fields. In the later stage, pink bollworm was also detected. “But the pest attack posed no serious threat to the crop. Timely detection and use of pesticides saved the crop,” he added.
Bathinda chief agriculture officer Jagsir Singh said against the average yield of 8 quintal acres, this year it was reduced to 4-5 quintals.
“Farmers felt discouraged with the trend of poor yield since 2021, leading to a significant reduction in the area devoted to cotton cultivation. Fearing another pest outbreak, many farmers hesitated to provide the necessary nutrients to their crops. Although pest management measures proved effective this time, the delayed focus on crop care came too late. Growth of plants remained short due to lack of nutrients and scantly rainfall that hit the yield,” he said.
