Farmers stay away from cotton, prefer other crops due to better incentives

Lower cotton acreage and lower availability at a time when crude oil prices are falling is likely to raise India's consumption of manmade fibre and synthetic yarn

Farmers have reduced area under cotton sowing this season in favour of some oilseeds in which they foresee better earnings. Cotton prices, despite a much lower crop as estimated by trade and industry, have not given them much returns in the last season. Lower cotton acreage and lower availability at a time when crude oil prices are falling is likely to raise India’s consumption of manmade fibre (MMF) and synthetic yarn in the years ahead, which are produced from derivatives of crude oil.

The two-week delay in the monsoon rainfalls has resulted