The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Problems galore for cotton crop

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 23, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Problems galore for cotton crop

S. Harpal Singh

Cotton ginning and pressing industry affected by power shortage, scarcity of raw material

Monsoon woes: The bald patches in this cotton field are a pointer towards the lesser percentage of germination due to deficit rainfall.

ADILABAD: Though the unfavourable seasonal conditions are expected to have a positive influence on the price of cotton in the district, the processing industry is likely to face adversity.

High price

While farmers will be able to more than cover their losses in yield by high price for their produce, the cotton ginning and pressing industry will be affected by shortage of raw material.

Going by the success of Bt cotton in the last season, local industrialists had planned to increase in processing capacity that stands at 15,000 bales per day on Tuesday. However, owing to the foreseen factors like power shortage and raw material going scarce, most of them have slowed down the process of expansion.

According to experts, the cotton business in Adilabad will also be impacted by the trend prevailing elsewhere in cotton producing areas of Punjab, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

In these States the price of this commercial crop is slated to be upwards of Rs. 3,500 per quintal. It is reported that the processing industry in Gujarat has already launched forward purchase of the produce.

Notwithstanding the fact that sowing of cotton will be taken up in the projected 2.2 lakh hectares this season, the 46 per cent deficit rainfall is bound to result in decreased yields by about 25 per cent.

“In addition to the stiff competition likely among local cotton purchasers, those from Maharashtra will give us a tough time.

Under such conditions circumspect factory owners decided to go slow on the expansion business,” explained Bajranglal Agarwal, president of the Adilabad Ginning and Pressing Mill Owners’ Association. “Cotton processing industries across the country will be faced with the same situation because of the lower production projected for this year. From a high of over 3.5 crore bales, the projection has been downscaled.

It may go up by another 50 lakh bales that may not make much of a difference. Shortage of about 1 crore bales will certainly create problems for the industry,” opined Mahendra Kumar Dokwal, industry observer.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh

News Update

Stories in this Section