The cotton growers in Maharashtras Vidarbha region, who were worried about their crop during the June-August sowing season, now have their hopes rested on a good yield following the heavy rains witnessed in the State.
It may be recalled that hundreds of farmers in Vidarbha, over the past decade, had resorted to suicide due to failure of their toil and inability to pay back their creditors.
During the June-August sowing season the fields were dry and parched and most of the plants were damaged. But, after the heavy showers during the past few weeks the farmers have re-sown their fields and they are hopeful again.
Initially when we had sown cotton, there was no rainfall, the sowing was not good and the crop did not look good either. We had to re-sow, the water was still inadequate but there has been some good rainfall recently, a few days back, which has been reassuring. The signs are good and we hope the yield will be good," said Dattaji Shirke, a cotton grower.
Tularam S Mote, the Regional Agricultural Officer of Nagpur, said that another positive component for the farmers has been the genetically modified BT cotton, which the farmers opted while sowing again.
Near about 60 percent of the cotton that is sown, is BT cotton, the BT cotton does not suffer the Bollworm attacks, we are hence hoping for a good crop, Tularam S Mote said.
Cotton has been sown in almost 2.73 lakh hectares of land in the region.
Even the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) is also expecting a 10 to 15 per cent increase in overall cotton production this year in the state. - ANI