India’s cotton yield has received a boost as 6.6 lakh bales (each weighing 140 kg) of cotton have been procured so far surpassing last year’s production figures of 6.5 lakh bales. Last year, whitefly destroyed more than 60 per cent of the cotton crop in the Malwa belt. Despite the steep fall in the area covered under cotton production to 2.48 lakh hectares in 2016-17 from 4.5 lakh hectare in 2015-16 as growers feared a possibility of pest attack, the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) is expecting production of 8.75 lakh bales this year after a year of despair and heavy financial losses.
Balwinder Singh Sidhu, Commissioner – Agriculture, said that the quality and yield of cotton crop has improved this year and farmers are getting lucrative prices for their produce. More than 60 per cent of the total yield was sold for more than Rs 5,000 per quintal. Due to low production last year, the demand for cotton in India and abroad shot up this year, which is another for farmers getting higher prices.