BHAWANIPATNA: With harvesting still a month away, cotton growers in and around Kalahandi are hopeful of reaping a good produce this year.As per the Agriculture department sources, the cash crop is currently in its bud formation and flowering stage and will start harvesting in phases from November. The crop is being cultivated over an area of 70,000 hectare and is expected to fetch a good price between Rs 7,000 to Rs 9,000 per quintal this year as compared to last year’s price of Rs 6,025 where the crop was grown on about 66,600 hectare of land.
The farmers are also likely to get good returns on Arhar grown as an inter-crop on around 20,000 hectare on an experimental basis by the Agriculture department under the Technology Mission on Cotton (TMC) programme. Chief district agriculture officer (CDAO) Pradeep Kumar Sahu said farmers will get additional income from inter cropping of Arhar. “This year some cotton growers have tried cultivating dwarf varieties of drum sticks along with Arhar as an intercrop and its success is awaited,” he added. Sources said, a farmer of Madingpadar village Jhajman Nag has been successful in growing drum sticks on his cotton field of 10 acre.