Haryana’s cotton farms holding on by a thread

In Haryana’s dusty heartland of Hisar, astir 180 kilometres westbound of Delhi, Satyavan, a weathered husbandman successful his precocious 50s, recounts the dwindling fortunes of fabric farming. A gangly fig with a rugged demeanour and grey close-cropped hair, helium sits amid chap farmers successful Kirtan village, his crisp features etched with concern.

For 25 years, Satyavan has tilled the land, increasing fabric arsenic a Kharif crop, but the returns person been dismal for the past decade. Last year, helium sowed 5 acres, lone to incur a nonaccomplishment of ₹15,000. The culprit, helium says, is the relentless pinkish bollworm, which has ravaged his crops since 2014. “When you origin successful the costs of seeds, fertilizers, diesel, and harvesting, the nonaccomplishment is stark,” helium says.

Sitting adjacent to him, Dayanand Dhaka, 53, his airy grey stubble glistening successful the sunlight, speaks of fabric farming arsenic a Sisyphean task. “Three to 4 quintals per acre, that is each I got past year,” helium says, his dependable tinged with defeat. “The costs person outstripped my meagre returns. It has maine ₹40,000 successful the red.”

It is simply a communicative that has repeated itself implicit 5-6 years: the pinkish bollworm’s relentless assault, the government’s elusive Minimum Support Price (MSP), and the crushing world of survival. “Government agencies said my fabric wasn’t up to the mark, truthful I sold it to backstage buyers astatine ₹6,200 a quintal, ₹1,600 little than the MSP,” Dhaka recounts, resignation successful his tone. Dhaka says helium got his harvest insured each year, but ne'er got the security money.

A Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare 2025 study records that the full country nether fabric cultivation for Haryana has declined from 0.72 cardinal hectares successful 2019-20 to 0.40 cardinal hectares successful 2024-25, bringing down the State’s stock from 5.36% to 3.47% successful the full country nether the harvest nationally.

The Department of Agricultural Economics astatine Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (CCSHAU), successful its latest report, estimated that fabric farmers suffered a nonaccomplishment of ₹15,143 per acre successful the past Kharif season. The fabric champion stretches crossed Haryana’s occidental and south-western districts of Sirsa, Fatehabad, Jhajjar, Charkhi Dadri, Bhiwani, and Jind.

What the survey found

Titled ‘Economics of Important Kharif Crops successful Haryana-2025’, the 34-page study calculates the outgo of cultivation and accumulation and nett returns successful 18 of Haryana’s 23 districts for 7 crops: paddy, cotton, bajra, mung bean, clump legume (known locally arsenic guar), maize, and jowar.

As per the report, the mean adaptable outgo of increasing fabric per acre for the State was ₹22,821 and the full cost, including the transportation, rental worth of onshore and absorption charges, settled astatine ₹40,024. The gross returns per acre were ₹24,882, which besides included income from the by-products. The mean accumulation was 4 quintals per acre.

Hisar, Fatehabad, and Charkhi Dadri recorded a nett nonaccomplishment of ₹17,515, ₹17, 315, and ₹15,276 per acre, higher than the State average. The per-acre nonaccomplishment of ₹9,548 for Rewari was little than the State average.

For the study, each territory was classified into antithetic harvest zones connected the ground of existing harvest patterns. About 40 farmers were randomly selected from 4 villages representing antithetic harvest zones, and accusation was collected. Though the study cautions that the illustration size for information postulation was not large, it says that the results are wide indicators for antithetic issues progressive successful the decision-making process for the cultivation of assorted Kharif crops successful Haryana.

Vinay Mehla, adjunct idiosyncratic astatine CCSHAU’s Department of Agricultural Economics, sheds airy connected the fabric crisis. He says historically, fabric faced threats from pests similar spotted bollworm, American bollworm, and pinkish bollworm. The instauration of genetically modified Bt fabric seeds successful the aboriginal 2000s, infused with Bacillus thuringiensis genes, initially mitigated the pinkish bollworm menace. However, the pest developed important absorption by the aboriginal 2010s, starring to devastating output losses. “Pre-pink bollworm, yields ranged from 10-12 quintals per acre; now, they are little than fractional of that. Last year’s floods exacerbated the situation,” Mehla says.

He advocates broad reforms, emphasising section assortment improvement and dedicated funding. He urges an exigency authorities gathering to code the crisis, informing that fabric cultivation, already connected the downtrend, tin beryllium a happening of the past wrong a mates of years, if unchecked.

Last year, yields averaged 4 quintals per acre, fetching ₹5,000-₹6,000 per quintal, leaving farmers astatine a loss. As fabric cultivation shrinks, farmers, industry, and the system look dire consequences, including accrued imports and gross losses. “Those inactive increasing fabric are holding connected by a thread, mostly for its by-products,” Mehla notes.

Depleted gold

Haryana’s cotton, erstwhile thriving successful the region’s arid clime and sandy loam soil, is present struggling. Dying yields person near farmers similar Dayanand and Satyavan with fewer options. Alternative Kharif crops similar guar and mung legume are susceptible to fungus. The highly saline groundwater successful the portion does not suit paddy, and bajra’s debased returns marque this labour-intensive harvest economically unviable.

Satyavan’s experimentation with KR-64 cotton, a desi, hybrid variety, flopped past year, yielding conscionable 2 quintals per acre. Farmers are stuck betwixt mediocre yields and unviable alternatives, with their economical stableness hanging successful the balance. Shifting to caller crops depends connected a assortment of factors, including the climatic conditions, availability of labour, marketplace request and, supra all, the close price.

Farmers successful Hisar’s fabric loop are struggling, relying connected wheat and mustard to enactment afloat, says Sandeep, a husbandman who owns 6 acres of land. “Farming is becoming a loss-making deal,” helium adds. Even with the MSP, rising input costs permission farmers with meagre profits. “In 2005, 1 quintal of foodgrains bought 10 grams of gold; present it is simply a fraction of that,” says Sandeep.

Diesel prices archer a akin story. One quintal of foodgrain utilized to bargain a tube of diesel. Now, farmers request 3 quintals for a barrel. “The authorities needs to code this price-input outgo imbalance. Farmers are present shifting to paddy, contempt h2o woes, oregon exploring alternatives similar poultry farming, oregon adjacent selling land, says Ramandeep, a journalist-farmer.

Turning to rice

In Sirsa, the apical cotton-producing territory successful Haryana, the country nether fabric cultivation has shown a gradual alteration for 5 years, registering a diminution of 34.62% since 2020, arsenic per territory agriculture section figures. Farmers are besides quitting fabric due to the fact that the output per hectare has gone down. From 714 kg per hectare successful 2019, the mean fabric output successful Sirsa dropped to 264 kg per hectare successful 2022; rebounded to 583 kg per hectare successful 2023, to autumn to 534 kg per hectare the pursuing year.

Despite the adust clime of Sirsa being historically and agro-climatically much suitable for the crop, farmers are shifting to rice, a water-intensive crop. The territory agriculture section figures amusement the country nether atom (paddy) cultivation has changeable up from 1,00,300 hectares successful 2020 to 1,55,650 hectares successful 2024, a leap of 55.18%.

Cotton is simply a harvest prone to pests specified arsenic pinkish bollworm, achromatic alert and besides impacted by abrupt changes successful upwind conditions, forcing farmers to displacement to alternate crops, contempt assorted authorities schemes to incentivise water-efficient crops, says Deputy Director of Agriculture, Sirsa, Sukhdev Singh Kamboj.

Under the ‘Mera Pani-Meri Virasat (my water, my legacy)’ scheme, the Haryana authorities provides an inducement of ₹8,000 per acre to farmers who turn water-wise crops specified arsenic maize, pulses, and cotton, alternatively of paddy, to conserve depleting groundwater levels. Besides causing economical distress to the farmers, the diminution successful fabric accumulation has besides dealt a stroke to the efforts of the Haryana authorities to apprehension the fast-depleting groundwater level successful the State.

“The Haryana authorities besides offers ₹3,000 per acre inducement to farmers increasing desi fabric arsenic it requires importantly little h2o and is resilient to clime challenges. But it has failed to find galore takers due to the fact that the section varieties fetch little prices compared to Bt fabric and person inconsistent marketplace demand, though the mean output per hectare remains astatine par,” says Kamboj. Desi varieties are besides comparatively much labour-intensive compared with higher-density hybrids that tin beryllium mechanically picked.

Read:How fabric colonised the world

Many farmers, however, support that section varieties are not easy available, making it hard for them to avail themselves of the authorities scheme. The authorities besides offers ₹2,000 per acre (maximum ₹4,000 per farmer) inducement for fabric growers nether its Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programme, but each these efforts have, truthful far, failed to gully farmers backmost to cotton, Kamboj adds.

Farm labour struggles

The diminution successful fabric accumulation has besides deed the workplace labourers. Playing cards nether a histrion successful Jhajjar’s Kherka Gujjar village, surrounded by his friends, Ishwar, from the Scheduled Caste assemblage who are often progressive successful workplace labour work, says the section landlords’ shifting to paddy from fabric successful this portion has deed workplace labourers similar him “really hard”.

“Cotton picking needs much hands compared to paddy harvesting. Also, the landlords similar migrant labourers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh for paddy sowing and harvesting owed to their expertise and little wages. Locals are preferred for fabric picking,” says the 48-year-old. He adds that he, similar galore others successful the village, present travels to the metropolis to enactment arsenic a operation worker.

Birmati, different workplace labourer, says that she would marque ₹10,000-15,000 during the Kharif harvesting play each twelvemonth from fabric picking earlier. “The diminution successful the accumulation of fabric has reduced the request for seasonal labour implicit the years, peculiarly for the women, who thrust overmuch of the picking process,” she says. It whitethorn yet thrust workers towards the municipality areas, straining the metropolis infrastructure.

Traditionally a sugarcane belt, Jhajjar saw a abrupt surge successful fabric cultivation aft the advent of the Bt fabric owed to precocious accumulation and marketplace value. “The fabric cultivation successful Jhajjar peaked successful 2021 with 32,437 acres nether fabric cultivation.

The authorities strategy to incentivise water-efficient crops besides contributed to the farmers’ inclination towards the crop,” says Sub Divisional Officer (Agriculture), Jhajjar, Jagjit Sangwan. But the interaction of the pinkish bollworm and mediocre prices deed farmers.

“My gramps had purchased 2.5 acres of cultivation onshore utilizing the net from conscionable 4 acres of fabric cultivation. But today, farmers are incurring losses successful fabric farming,” Mehla says, adding that soon determination whitethorn beryllium nary fabric farms successful Haryana.

The country nether fabric cultivation crossed India has besides decreased by 14.84% betwixt 2019-20 and 2024-25, with accumulation down from 36.07 cardinal bales (170 kg successful each bale) to 29.72 cardinal bales.

ashok.kumar@thehindu.co.in

Edited by Sunalini Mathew