Farmers Movement Archive

Punjab inflated cotton cultivation claim on 5L hectares last year

BATHINDA: Punjab has drastically decreased the cultivation target for the area under cotton for the 2021-22 crop year to 3.25 lakh hectares. In the 2020-21 season, the Punjab government had claimed that the area under cotton cultivation had increased to 5 lakh hectares. The drastic cut in the cotton cultivation area was effected despite the fact that farmers got good remuneration in 2020-21 after many years of misery. The prices hovered above the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 5,725 per quintal for 27.5-28.5 mm staple. The prices had also breached the psychological mark of Rs 6,000 per quintal in February 2021. The Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) purchased over 50 percent of the total crop that landed in mandis in Punjab. It is after many years the CCI made such a big purchase and stopped after the prices had gone beyond the MSP. When questioned about the rationale behind decreasing the cultivation target area for cotton, the Punjab agriculture department claimed that during actual ‘girdawari’ (revenue assessment), the area under cotton in 2020-21 was found to be 2.51 lakh hectares not 5 lakh hectares. So, Punjab government’s claims last year were inflated by almost two times. Punjab agriculture department director Sukhdev Singh did not respond to repeated calls and text messages sent to him. However, additional chief secretary (development) Anirudh Tiwari in a text message confirmed that “actual area after girdawari was 2.51 lakh hectares under cotton during 2020-21.” On May 26, 2020, the then ACS (development) Viswajeet Khanna in a press statement had claimed Punjab had almost accomplished its target to bring 12.5 lakh acres (5 lakh hectares) under cotton with the sowing on 10 lakh acres (4 lakh hectares) and target would be completed very soon, in the first week of June. Again, on August 3, 2020, Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh lauded the state farmers for the successful diversification of crops over 2.28 lakh hectares by withdrawing from the conventional wheat-paddy cultivation cycle in the Kharif sowing season. It was also claimed that the decision would save nearly 2.7 billion cubic metres of groundwater and Rs 200 crore in power consumption. ACS (development) Tiwari had said at that time that cotton cultivation has been carried out across 5.01 lakh hectares, which was 1.09 lakh hectares more compared to the previous year acreage of 3.92 lakh hectares. The sowing of cotton this year is getting delayed due to delayed procurement of wheat. Bathinda chief agriculture officer (CAO) Bahadur Singh said, “The state government has put the target at 3.25 lakh hectares in Punjab and it is 1.05 lakh hectares for Bathinda and cotton has so far been sown on 1,400 hectares.” Farmers are perplexed over the Punjab government’s decision to decrease the target for cotton sowing. “We were satisfied with the cotton crop last year as the prices remained good all around the year and were hoping the area under cotton would increase as after the central government coming up with the farm laws there is uncertainty over procurement of paddy. Under such circumstances, the state government should have made efforts to increase the area under cotton but astonishingly it has been decreased,” said farmers from Sangat and Jai Singh Wala villages in Bathinda district. Cotton trading body Indian Cotton Association Limited (ICAL) president Mahesh Sharda told TOI: “It is learnt that the Punjab government was inflating figures to show more cotton sowing in the state. This year, the farmers got good prices for the crop and the decreasing target of sowing is unimaginable. The state government should have gone for cotton sowing over more area.” Aam Aadmi Party MLA and party’s kisan wing head Kultar Singh Sandhwan said: “The government must look into this serious issue. It should investigate how the area set up for all crops was made, how many cotton seed packets were used and how much pesticide was used. All these point towards a scam”.

The Times of India

2021-04-29

Amritsar