Cotton sowing halfway through, officials say 100% by May 31

District wise, Fazilka has taken the lead this year having completed sowing in nearly 78 per cent of the target area of 105,000 hectares set for this year.

Punjab’s cotton belt comprises eight districts of which Bathinda, Fazilka, Mansa and Muktsar make for the lion’s share. The other districts in the belt are Moga, Barnala, Sangrur and Faridkot. Fazilka, which has taken the lead this year, had recorded the highest sowing last year when it had 96,000 hectares under cotton. It is followed by Mansa where farmers have completed sowing cotton in nearly 39 per cent of the targetted 60,000 hectares. Bathinda where 35.7 per cent sowing has been done against the target of 80,200 hectares, and Muktsar (35.4 per cent of 50,000 hectares) follow closely.

“Though official deadline to finish sowing cotton is May 20, but it often stretches till May end or June first week,” said an agriculture officer from Bathinda.

Confirming that farmers have already sown cotton in 81,725 hectare area against the target of 1.05 lakh hectare in Fazilka, Deputy Commissioner Dr Senu Duggal said, “By May 31, we will achieve 100 per cent target”. The DC gave the credit for this to the canal water reaching till the tail end this time due to which the farmers faced no shortage of water.

Meanwhile, bad weather and rainfall in Malwa districts this week ruined the crop in about 15,000 hectares, with Agriculture director Gurvinder Singh saying that re-sowing needs to be done in that area.
“Cotton sowing is going on at good pace in Fazilka. It is slow in other districts, but we are hopeful that it will pick up”.

This year, Punjab government offered 33 per cent subsidy on Bt Cotton seed, as recommended by Punjab Agricultural University.

Jagjit Singh, a farmer at Acharchiki village of Fazilka, said, “Our village is at the tail end of Malukpura minor canal but this time we recieved water well in time and I completed sowing cotton”.

Khazan Chand of Dangarkhera village of Fazilka said ,”I have sown cotton in 15 acres. Now, we need to guard against any pest attack, which normally starts from mid June”.

Punjab has the potential to bring around 8 lakh hectares under cotton crop. The state used to have more than 7 lakh hectares under cotton crop as was recorded in the years 1988-89 (7.58 LH), 1989-90 (7.33 LH) and 1991-92 (7.19 LH ).