Dharwad: About 60 per cent of the quantity of pesticides used in agriculture is for cotton cultivation, the yield of cotton in the last 10 years had been decreasing year after year, Vice-Chancellor of University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad, S.A. Patil, has said.

Dr. Patil was inaugurating a two-day workshop on "Sustainable organic cotton production" organised jointly by the Organic Farming Cell of UAS, Institute of Cultural Research and Action (ICRA), Bangalore, and Chetana Organic, Hyderabad, here on Saturday. Cotton, which was called as "white gold" during the Seventies and Eighties, then became a target of pests.

Then onwards because of changes in the cultivation patterns single crop system, depending on chemical pesticides and manures the cotton production started decreasing. It had forced people to reduce production cost through organic farming and take steps to increase the yield, he said.

Because of the impact of globalisation, cultivating cotton had become expensive for small and medium scale farmers.

Dr. Patil explained the benefits of following organic farming to grow cotton. Organic farming would not only reduce the cost, but make the soil more fertile.

Mr. Gurunath Odugoudar said that through organic faming the yield of any crop could be increased.

Prabha Nagarajan, India Representative, Organic Exchange; Manohar Parachure, President, Maharashtra Organic Farming Federation, Laxmibai Gour, A.D. Kotnal, D.D. Bharamgoudar, and Babu were present.

R.R. Hanchinal, Director of Research, UAS, welcomed the gathering. Arun Chandra, team leader of Chetana Organic, spoke. Krishna Naik, Director of Extension, UAS, proposed a vote of thanks.

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