Telangana zooms ahead of Gujarat and becomes the second-biggest state in the cotton acreage, a position that was held by Gujarat till now. This is not all. Telangana is now looking forward to increasing the cotton cultivation area by another 15-20 lakh acres in the approaching Kharif season. This will take the total cotton area to 75-80 lakh acres.
Looking at the positive situation, Chief Minister of Telangana K Chandrashekar Rao has urged the Agriculture Department to arrange for mobilizing cotton seeds needed for the upcoming Kharif season.
Generally, farmers use two packets of seeds with 450 grams each in one acre. So, the total requirement goes to 1.50-1.60 crore packets.
Telangana state had experimented with Regulated Cropping System last year and the results were astounding. The state increased cotton acreage to a whopping 60 lakh acres from 46 lakh acres (in 2019).
At the same time, the state urges its farmers to also grow red gram (pigeon pea) in double the area of what was last Kharif. This year, the state wants the area in red gram to be 20-25 lakh acres. This move indicates that the state wants its farmers to reduce their dependence on paddy and concentrate more on cotton and red gram.
Gujarat was earlier the second-biggest cotton cultivating state, growing cotton in around 56 lakh acres. In 2019, the state grew cotton on 66 lakh acres. Maharashtra ranks first in cotton acreage in India with 1.04 crore acres under this cash crop.
