How cotton becomes killer

With cotton being a perennial crop peaking three times a year, the brothers are anticipating a veritable bounty in October/November.And at 50 quintals per harvest, they couldn8217;t ask for more.

The new art of cultivation8217; advocated by the friendly pesticide dealer, who has asked them to 8220;sincerely8221; spray his pesticides at least 10 to 14 times, is ravaging soil fertility and helping the pests build resistance to the chemicals.

However, for the Pundaliks and thousands of others like them, the dealer is the first and last word on expert advice. They have no use for agricultural experts for unlike the dealer, the latter have nothing to offer. The dealer lends them money, sells them pesticides and fertilizers and after the harvest, why he may even agree to buy their cotton with ready cash.

Farmers, who have little capital to invest at the time of sowing, buy seeds, fertilizers and of course, pesticides, on credit. While most dealers in urban areas readily offer attractive discounts on the maximum retail price MRP, they sell the pesticides to farmers at a price much higher than the MRP.

The farmers are told they can become richovernight by using pesticides and seeds of high-yielding varieties, says economist, H M Desarda, former member of the State Planning Commission. 8220;What we should be telling them instead is that though natural varieties of seeds are low on productivity they are high on stability for the agricultural sector,8221; the economist says.

Cotton is extremely vulnerable to pests, especially bollworms which turn into moths, and it consumes nearly 55 per cent of pesticides manufactured the world over, says Dr N L Bhale, a cotton expert and former director of the Nagpur-based Central Cotton Research Institute.

Farmers have been induced by dealers to spray the plants at least 12-18 times per harvest against the recommended average six to seven times during the crop8217;s 160-180-day cycle. In fact, they begin spraying the plants from the day the first leaves sprout.

But the consequences are devastating. For one, the pests develop a fierce immunity and once they cross the first two of their five-stage life cycle, there isno known chemical in the world potent enough to kill them, says Uttamrao Ingale, director of Extention Education at the Marathwada Agriculture University in Parbhani, who is doing extensive research on cotton, besides coordinating programmes to take the results of university research to the farmers.

Having thus survived to the last stage of development, the moths lay as many as 300 to 900 eggs at a time and wreak havoc on the crop.The prospect of a rich harvest also discourages cultivators from using traditional methods for farming like crop rotation, which naturally ensures soil fertility. The cotton craze drives many of them to cultivate cotton and only cotton, further eroding soil fertility. This also frustrates every attempt of scientists to break the moths8217; life cycle, explains Dr G V Pote, an entomologist with the National Agriculture Research Project, Aurangabad.

Besides, the plant8217;s roots burrow deep into the soil, rapidly absorbing minerals. When a cotton crop is not followed by another whoseroots spread only on the surface, the soil loses its fertility permanently, experts say. This has led to a dreadful situation in the region and agricultural experts fear there is no way out. 8220;Our farmers have all but forgotten what rotation of crops means to the soil8217;s fertility,8221; Ingle observes.

The cotton monopoly purchase scheme makes it worse. Though the yield from the last two harvests called further8217; cotton is especially poor, the government pays as much as Rs 900 per quintal against the Rs 500 it would fetch in the open market. Why would the tillers, always in dire need of ready cash, switch crops even though research and logic dictate otherwise?

Another fallout of the addicting lure of pesticides is that farmers pay scant attention to soil preparation. Experts have repeatedly asked them to plough their fields deep while the summer is still hot and nurture it with nitrogen-rich urea at least a fortnight before sowing. However, anxious to reap yet another harvest, they immediately proceed withthe next round of sowing, Pote says.

Modern methods like the Integrated Pest Management IPM too have not found favour with a majority of farmers. 8220;Farmers are careless about plant protection. They are even reluctant to stay in the fields at the time of spraying to ensure that the labourers they employ are using the right combination of chemicals,8221; Ingle says.

Experts say the unhealthy trend has taken an ominous turn with farmers in districts like Beed, Latur and Osmanabad also opting for cotton cultivation. This despite the fact that soil conditions there are suitable for the crop.