Reviving cotton viability amid shrinkage in area: Experts, policymakers call for urgent action in interstate meet
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Context
Alarmed by a significant reduction in the area dedicated to cotton cultivation across northern states like Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan, an interstate meeting was held in Bathinda, Punjab. Policymakers and agricultural experts from these states, along with central research institutes, convened to devise a strategy for the Kharif 2026 season. The decline is attributed to a combination of pest attacks, climate-related stresses, and farmers shifting to more reliable crops like paddy, prompting calls for urgent, coordinated action to restore cotton's profitability and viability.
UPSC Perspectives
Economic
The decline in cotton acreage is fundamentally an issue of farm economics and profitability. Farmers are increasingly shifting to paddy cultivation, which, despite being water-intensive, offers more stable returns partly due to assured irrigation and a robust procurement mechanism. Cotton, in contrast, has become a high-risk crop due to recurring pest attacks, particularly from the pink bollworm, which has developed resistance to earlier generations of Bt cotton. This increases the cost of cultivation through higher pesticide usage, while simultaneously reducing yield and quality, thereby squeezing farmer incomes. The article highlights the need for subsidies on recommended seeds and promoting balanced fertilization to address this. This situation underscores the broader challenge of cropping pattern distortion in North India, driven by policy incentives and market risks. To revive cotton, policy interventions must go beyond just production and focus on the entire value chain, as envisioned in schemes like the , which aims to improve productivity, marketing infrastructure, and processing.
Environmental & Ecological
The crisis is deeply rooted in environmental and ecological factors. The article points to biotic stresses like pink bollworm and whitefly, and abiotic stresses such as erratic weather, highlighting the crop's vulnerability to climate change. The emergence of pests like the pink bollworm, which now infests even Bollgard-II Bt cotton, indicates the limitations of a purely technology-driven approach and the need for Integrated Pest Management (IPM). This involves practices like deep ploughing, crop residue management, and using pheromone traps, as discussed in the meeting. Furthermore, the shift of cotton to lighter soils affects its productivity. The article also mentions the critical need for assured canal water for pre-sowing irrigation, linking the issue to water resource management. The alternative crop, paddy, exacerbates the problem by causing significant groundwater depletion, creating a difficult policy trade-off between economic stability for farmers and long-term ecological sustainability.
Governance & Policy
The article highlights a classic agricultural governance challenge requiring coordinated interstate and institutional action. The meeting itself, involving three states and central bodies like the , is an example of the necessary collaborative approach. Key governance tasks identified include ensuring the timely availability of high-quality seeds, managing subsidies, and providing assured canal water, which demand seamless coordination between agricultural departments, research universities like , and irrigation departments. The call for a large-scale awareness campaign and improved extension services points to the need to bridge the gap between lab-based solutions and farm-level practices. Government initiatives like the provide a framework and funding for such interventions, focusing on technology transfer and demonstrations to enhance productivity. The success of the Kharif 2026 roadmap will depend on the effective implementation of these multi-pronged strategies and the ability of state machinery to deliver extension services at the grassroots level.