Telangana to encourage farmers to grow pulses
Nearly 40 per cent of the crops were lost due to the pest attack.
HYDERABAD: The Telangana state government has decided to encourage the cultivation of pulses in place of cotton during the ensuing Kharif season in June. This is because cotton farmers had suffered huge loss in 2017 due to the pink bollworm attack and there are concerns about pests harming the cotton crop again during the kharif season. A team of agricultural experts, who toured the affected districts to study the impact of bollworm attack, recommended the government to create awareness among the farmers to not cultivate cotton on a large-scale in the coming season as the seeds produced from cotton crops in 2017 may not resist pest attack.
Telangana State Agricultural University has also recommended the same, urging the government to encourage farmers to opt for cultivation of pulses instead of cotton in coming kharif season. In 2016, the TS government took up a huge campaign against cotton farming as the prices crashed in 2015, causing severe loss to farmers and resulting in high rate of suicides. However, with decreased production in 2016, cotton fetched higher price in the market and farmers who opted for cotton in 2016 ended up with good profits.
This prompted farmers to opt for cotton again in 2017 and the government too did not take up any campaign against cotton cultivation. Cotton was sown on a record 47.72 lakh acres in 2017. But prolonged dry spells between July and September and incessant rains between September and October damaged the crops to a huge extent. The pink bollworm attack in November and December caused irrepairable loss to the farmers which was due to unauthorised BG III seeds sold in the market besides spurious BG II seeds. Nearly 40 per cent of the crops were lost due to the pest attack.