Cotton export ban puts farmers in dilemma

The Centre’s decision to ban the export of cotton has put hundreds of farmers from the state in a quandary. A huge demand for the cash crop in the international market and the hassle-free cultivation of Bt cotton had encouraged more and more farmers to take up its farming, making them prosperous. As a result, the state saw a remarkable increase in area under cotton in the last three years.

While the government fixed a price of Rs 2,900 per quintal for cotton, farmers were getting upto Rs 3,500 in the open market. Now, with the ban on exports, its prices have crashed by Rs 300 to Rs 400. The ban on cotton export was intended to bring down the prices of cotton in the domestic market.

However, the prohibition has not affected most of the farmers this time around as over 80 per cent of them have sold their produce.

Those largely affected are ginners as they have hoarded huge quantities of unsold cotton bales in their mills. There are over 500 ginning mills in the state. Over 1,000 traders and 10,000 commission agents depend on the cotton business.

Karnataka is a major cotton-growing region of the country along with Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. The cash crop is grown on more than 300,000 hectares in the state. Over 6 million quintals of cotton grown in the state was processed into more than 1.2 million bales (each bale contains 170 kgs) of cotton every year.

The state’s share of the cotton exports is around 5 per cent. India exports over 8 million bales of cotton every year. The cotton-growing areas and processing mills are concentrated in the central and northern regions of Karnataka. They are spread over Belgaum, Dharwad, Bijapur, Raichur, Gadag, Haveri, Bellary, Davanagere and Chitradurga. Roughly there are 1.5 million cotton growers in the state.

Ginner and Karnataka Cotton Association honorary secretary P M Ostawal fears Indian exporters are being blacklisted by the foreign companies with the government’s drastic decision.

He said, the ban has come as a shock to them as they were hoping for a good business this time around. They have incurred huge losses.

“What will we do with the huge quantity of cotton bales we have stocked? There is no good price in the local market for the superior quality cotton we have,” the ginners rued.