ADILABAD: Akshaya Tritiya mania has caught on with cotton farmers in the district too. But like all others, they did not buy the yellow metal but tucked in seeds of white gold - cotton - in the hope that the crop would shower a huge confetti of megabucks on them in the future.
The officials of the agriculture department estimate that the farmers may have bought 20 lakh cotton packets for sowing in about 3.5 lakh acres in the entire erstwhile Adilabad district.The cotton growers in mandals including Bhainsa, Kubeer, Basara, Mudhole had purchased cotton seeds after performing poojas to cattle in their houses attended by all the members of the household. Similar poojas are done in the field to tractors and ploughs. They sowed a few seeds to symbolise the commencement of their crop season.
A farmer A Ramu said: “Every year on Akshaya Tritiya day, we purchase cotton seeds the way others buy gold as we consider cotton as the equivalent of gold. We believe that if we purchase cotton seeds on this day, we would reap handsome profits.”
Another farmer from Bhainsa B. Ramesh said that he had purchased seeds and sowed some of them in the field after offering prayers to the buffaloes. “It is a sentiment. We believe that if we do this pooja, we will get good returns. This a tradition that has been in practice for generations,” he said.