CHANDIGARH, March 9: India, which had exported around 15 lakh bales of cotton during 1995-96 and another 12 lakh bales during 1996-97, may have to import as much as 12 lakh bales this year -- the highest ever. This follows the cotton crop disaster in the north, where Punjab alone is estimated to have lost crop worth Rs 1,000 crore. Together with Haryana and Rajasthan, the loss is reported to be around Rs 1,400 crore.This startling revelation was made by RN Gupta, financial commissioner (development) in the Punjab government. According to Gupta, the crop loss estimate of Rs 1,400 crore in the cotton belt of these three states was a conservative one.Official sources in the Cotton Corporation of India and the North India Cotton Association say the country would have to import 12 lakh cotton bales at about Rs 1,200 crore during the current season.
The season, which began in October 1997, will last till September 1998. During the last one decade, imports had never crossed the figure of six lakh bales. Thehighest figure was in 1960-61, when 11.2 lakh bales of cotton had been imported.The high imports are necessitated by huge losses in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.
In Punjab, the production loss is estimated at 40 per cent of the crop -- mainly due to water logging. A team of experts from the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, and the Haryana Agriculture University, Hissar, which undertook a survey of the three states recently, found that rainfall in the very initial stages of sowing had affected the emergence of seedlings.
Between July and September, rainfall was more than normal, which created conditions for the development of bollworm and disrupted normal spraying of pesticides. And when pesticides were sprayed, these were again washed out by rain. Rains continued even in October, which led again to the problem of insects and pests. The Punjab agriculture department, which had hoped to reap 24 lakh bales during the season, had to revise this estimate down to 16 lakh bales.
It has now broughtthe figure down even further to eight lakh bales. This is even lower than the Cotton Advisory Board's own estimate of nine lakh bales from Punjab. Last year, the total production from Punjab was about 16 lakh bales.
The North India Cotton Growers Association president Kattar Singh Jeeda, complained that neither the state agriculture department nor the Punjab Agriculture University did anything worthwhile for farmers who had lost over Rs 1,000 crore worth of cotton crop. The maximum loss was in Muktsar and Bhatinda districts of Punjab, where many growers had to uproot standing cotton crop in view of water-logging. They preferred to sow paddy instead of cotton -- once called the "white gold" of Punjab.
The loss in Sirsa and Hissar districts in Haryana was estimated at Rs 200 crore. According to a state agriculture department report, more than 20 per cent of the crop in the two districts had been damaged. The report said that 10 per cent of the loss was due to bad weather and untimely rains, while another 10per cent due to pests and leaf curl virus, which had come from Pakistan.
