TIRUCHY: Surging market price and consecutive successful harvest seasons have encouraged more farmers to take up cotton cultivation in the district. Pointing to the farmers depending on direct canal irrigation, as well as those in predominantly paddy cultivation areas now taking to cotton cultivation, officials expect the crop acreage to increase by nearly 40 per cent this year.
Joint Director of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department Murugesan, while mentioning cotton cultivation as having been taken up in about 11,470 hectares — particularly in rainfed areas — last year, said that favourable factors could push the crop acreage up by 40 per cent in 2022.
The rise in yarn price has translated to a surge in market cotton price as well. Further, with last cultivation season’s harvesting nearing completion, farmers in parts of the district — particularly those in rain-fed areas like Thuraiyur and Pullambadi — have kicked off preparations for cotton plantation.
Considering the promising situation, farmers in delta blocks like Manikandam, which is directly irrigated by the Kattalai canal, have also shifted to cotton cultivation this year. “Being a major paddy cultivation area, this is the first time its farmers are involved in cotton cultivation,” said an Agriculture Department official.
Palanisamy, a farmer from Navalur Kuttapattu, who has taken up cotton cultivation for the first time, said, “The cotton price has risen from `53 per kg in 2020 to `100 a kg in 2022. Such surge in prices has fetched a decent profit for farmers. I hence shifted from paddy cultivation. After preparatory works, cotton has been planted in nearly 10 acres. Having prominent irrigation facilities, we hope for a bumper yield.”
Farmers from Pullambadi, while saying the previous maize cultivation season to have been a failure, added that it led to many of them shifting to cotton cultivation this year.