For Jagadish Patel, a cotton farmer from Gujarat’s Rajkot district, Diwali this year has been one to cherish. “We no longer feel burdened under financial stress this time,” he says.

In neighbouring Maharashtra’s Marathwada region, Asaram Shinde from Beed says: “Cotton farmers are lucky compared to soya farmers. This is the time to celebrate for cotton farmers.”

Irfan Sheikh, Director of Sahyadri Balaghat Farmers Producers Company, that deals in cotton from the region, says cotton farmers are celebrating Diwali in a real sense after a long time.

Up 70% over last year

Not just in Gujarat and Maharashtra but across the country, cotton growers celebrated a different and stress-free Diwali this year as kapas (raw cotton) prices are ruling at record highs and at least 70 per cent over rates over last year.

“We are seeing such prices for the first time,” says Bandi Virupangowda, a large farmer in Ganekal (N) village of Devadurga taluk in Raichur district of eastern Karnataka, where cotton is a major crop.

Cotton prices are hovering around ₹70,000 a candy (of 356 kg) in Karnataka. In Telangana, they are quoting kapas at ₹8,500 a quintal. At Parkal market yard in the State, it went for ₹9,250 last week. In Maharashtra, prices have topped ₹9,000 a quintal in some markets, with growers hoping to reap ₹10,000 over the next few days. These are against ₹4,000-5,500 fetched during the same period a year ago.

Patel said: “Two years ago, we had to sell cotton at a loss at ₹4,800 a quintal. I sold cotton before Diwali and the price was reasonably high (this year) at ₹8,210 per quintal.”

Global trend

According to the Gujarat Cotton Association, export benchmark Shankar-6 cotton was offered at ₹67,000-67,500 a candy this week. Growers have gained from a bull run in the global market, where prices have zoomed to a decade’s high on higher offtake, lower ending stocks and supply issues.

Currently, cotton in New York is quoted at 108.26 cents a pound (₹68,600 a candy) for delivery in December. Prices on the futures market are ruling over 100 cents a pound (₹58,700 a candy), auguring well for them this season (October 2021-September 2022).

“This year, footfalls at shops and retail outlets were huge — something we have not seen for years — at Rajkot. People seemed least worried over petrol prices topping ₹100 a litre,” says Anand Poppat, a trader in raw cotton, wastes and yarn.

Ajay Shah, Gujarat Cotton Trade Association General Secretary, said it was a year of double bonus for cotton growers with prices as well as yield being good. “Monsoon has also been kind and there has been no report of any pest attack across the country,” he said.

Agrees Patel. “Even our medium quality cotton was sold at much higher price than the minimum support price (of ₹5,726 a quintal),” he says.

But Raj Reddy, a farmer from Warangal district who planted the fibre crop on two acres, said: “The cost of cotton production has more than doubled, while the yield has dropped to 5-6 quintals an acre from about 15 quintals during the non-Bt days.”

“Against an expectation of 10-12 quintals yield per acre, we believe it will be around 8-10 quintals,” Virupan Gowda said.

Ramanuja Das Boob, a sourcing agent for both domestic mills and exporters in Raichur, says cotton in Karnataka is fetching a better price as its quality is better.

Farmers in Telangana feel that due to poor yields and skyrocketing production costs, the high prices this year would be just enough to recover their investments.

Virupangowda says growers will be able to manage higher costs of fertilisers and labour, especially to tackle week, with the record prices for cotton. “The per acre cost of cultivation this year has been ₹35,000- 40,000,” he says.

Growers are selling off the produce as soon as it is picked, though big growers are holding back expecting prices to rise further. But erratic rainfall this monsoon could affect the yield, the Karnataka grower fears.

Ahead of Diwali, cotton arrivals were estimated at 1.5 lakh bales across the country. “If the same arrival trend continues over the next 15 days, prices will come down a bit,” said Boob.

(With inputs from Rutam Vota, Ahmedabad; Radheshyam Jadhav, Pune; KV Kurmanath, Hyderabad; and Vishwanath Kulkarni, Bengaluru)

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