Results
of the Gujarat assembly elections announced on Monday Dec 18,2017 showed the
Congress made significant gains in the Saurashtra-Kutch region and north
Gujarat where cotton and groundnut are the main cash crops.
In the belt that accounts for 54 assembly constituencies, the BJP won only 23 seats, 12 fewer than in 2012, while the Congress took 30 seats, 14 more than in 2012. And across the state, the BJP won only 55 of the 127 rural and semi-urban seats as against 68 by the Congress.
Gujarat is India’s top cotton producing state, accounting for nearly 25% of the national yield. According to the estimates of the cotton industry and the state government, the state is likely to produce 50.50 million quintals of cotton in the 2017 kharif season. Cotton is grown over 2.7 million hectares in Gujarat. Though Maharashtra has larger acreage under cotton—normally 3.8 million hectares but 4.2 million hectares this year—it has lower productivity and was estimated to produce nearly 40 million quintals at the start of this kharif season.
The regions of Vidarbha and Marathwada account for nearly 65% of Maharashtra’s total cotton yield. Parts of North Maharashtra and Khandesh also grow cotton. Of the state’s 13.6 million farmers, nearly 4.5 million grow cotton, as per the state’s agriculture census.
For the BJP, the cotton growing regions are also politically significant—some 65 of its total 122 members of the legislative assembly have been elected from Vidarbha, Marathwada, North Maharashtra and Khandesh. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis himself is from Vidarbha and so is senior BJP leader and Union minister of transport and shipping Nitin Gadkari.
Farm activists and politicians claimed that cotton crop grown over nearly 1.3 million hectares has been damaged by the attack of the pink bollworm because the Genetically Modified (GM) variety of Bollgard II has lost much of its resistance to pest attacks. In Yavatmal district alone, where cotton is cultivated over 4.5 lakh hectares —the largest area under cotton cultivation in India —bollworm attack has damaged between 50-80% of the crop, according to Tiwari.
In the belt that accounts for 54 assembly constituencies, the BJP won only 23 seats, 12 fewer than in 2012, while the Congress took 30 seats, 14 more than in 2012. And across the state, the BJP won only 55 of the 127 rural and semi-urban seats as against 68 by the Congress.
Gujarat is India’s top cotton producing state, accounting for nearly 25% of the national yield. According to the estimates of the cotton industry and the state government, the state is likely to produce 50.50 million quintals of cotton in the 2017 kharif season. Cotton is grown over 2.7 million hectares in Gujarat. Though Maharashtra has larger acreage under cotton—normally 3.8 million hectares but 4.2 million hectares this year—it has lower productivity and was estimated to produce nearly 40 million quintals at the start of this kharif season.
The regions of Vidarbha and Marathwada account for nearly 65% of Maharashtra’s total cotton yield. Parts of North Maharashtra and Khandesh also grow cotton. Of the state’s 13.6 million farmers, nearly 4.5 million grow cotton, as per the state’s agriculture census.
For the BJP, the cotton growing regions are also politically significant—some 65 of its total 122 members of the legislative assembly have been elected from Vidarbha, Marathwada, North Maharashtra and Khandesh. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis himself is from Vidarbha and so is senior BJP leader and Union minister of transport and shipping Nitin Gadkari.
Farm activists and politicians claimed that cotton crop grown over nearly 1.3 million hectares has been damaged by the attack of the pink bollworm because the Genetically Modified (GM) variety of Bollgard II has lost much of its resistance to pest attacks. In Yavatmal district alone, where cotton is cultivated over 4.5 lakh hectares —the largest area under cotton cultivation in India —bollworm attack has damaged between 50-80% of the crop, according to Tiwari.
No comments:
Post a Comment