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Drought hits cotton growers in Nellore
Drought conditions jolted not only the paddy farmers and even farmers who are harvesting short-term crops such as cotton also affected. They also failed to get yield due to seasonal diseases and shortage of water. Farmers in the district cultivated in around 4,000 hectares in the entire district.
Nellore: Drought conditions jolted not only the paddy farmers and even farmers who are harvesting short-term crops such as cotton also affected. They also failed to get yield due to seasonal diseases and shortage of water. Farmers in the district cultivated in around 4,000 hectares in the entire district.
The farmers who skipped cultivating paddy this year had shifted to cotton crop due to non-availability of water in the season. Still, farmers have been facing troubles as they had incurred huge losses due to seasonal pests and shortage of water.
Nellore is known for paddy crop which gradually turned to centre for commercial crops. Many mandals are now showing presence of aquaculture, where large tracts of land, which were previously under rice cultivation. Some farmers also started to shift to other crops that consume low quantity of water.
Paddy was being cultivated in just around 33,000 hectares in kharif as against 62,000 hectares normal cultivation area. Nearly 1.88 lakh metric tonnes of paddy were yielded from kharif operations last year. Farmers had spent more than Rs 25,000 per acre on cotton this year.
Now, they are getting only Rs 32 to Rs 35 per one kg of cotton in the market. There is no adequate water for irrigation purposes in Somasila and Kandaleru reservoirs in the district. There was no rainfall even during 2016 which made the farmers out of farming activity. Consequently, farmers even in delta areas also have cultivated cotton crop instead of paddy.
“We had cultivated cotton spending Rs 28,000 per acre. Now, the market price of cotton per kilo has decreased from Rs 36 to Rs 32. We are not getting even cultivation cost. We have to bear transport and labour charges additionally,” said P Ramanaiah from Vinjamuru mandal.
Cotton is being cultivated in Kavali, Kondapuram, Vinjamuru, Jaladanki, Bogole, Dagadarthi, Varikuntapadu, AS Pet, Podalakur, Buchireddypalem, Chejarla, Dakkili, Balayapalli and in some parts of Nellore rural mandal. Majority farmers in upland areas have also cultivated crop supplying water with tankers.
“Cotton is not grown normally in the district. But this time it was cultivated in around 4,000 hectares across the district due to shortage of water for paddy,” said an official from Agricultural department. He said they are not getting proper support price due to various
market reasons.
