After sugar cane, government advises farmers against cotton cultivation

AURANGABAD: The government wants to wean farmers away from water-intensive crops. After discouraging sugar cane cultivation, the government now wants farmers to look beyond cotton.
Addressing a farmers’ workshop on Monday, Union minister of state for water resources Rattan Lal Kataria said the farming community must opt for crop diversification instead of sticking to “water-guzzler” crops.
“Cotton, like sugar cane, is a water-guzzling crop. It takes about 22,500 litre of water to produce just 1 kg of cotton. The countries that are receiving the water-guzzling crops from India are, in fact, saving their own water resources,” he said.
The minister also cited case studies from Haryana, where farmers chose to grow maize and pearl millet — in place of traditional crops — as a part of crop diversification efforts. “The farmers who had adopted the change got good dividends. For instance, those who grew pearl millet made around Rs 2,000 per acre of land cultivated — this is more than what they would have earned growing wheat,” Kataria said.
Later, speaking with reporters, Kataria said the government does not want to enforce any decision on cropping pattern. “However, we will insist that the farming community considers alternatives to sugar cane and cotton. If more farmers respond to our appeal, the government is ready to increase the list of crops covered under the Minimum Support Price (MSP) scheme,” he said.
This appeal to limit the cultivation of cash crops has not gone down well with the farmer activists. Farmer leader Jayaji Suryawanshi said the government must highly subsidise drip, sprinkler and micro-irrigation techniques before coming out with any cropping pattern suggestion. “It is true that judicious use of water is important. But it does not mean that farmers should sacrifice their assured income. The government must offer a 90% subsidy on water conservation techniques first before advocating crop diversification,” he said.
At the workshop, titled ‘Increasing Water-Use Efficiency In Agriculture’, the minister also administered an oath to farmers about the judicious use of water.
G Ashok Kumar, the additional secretary of National Water Mission, R R Pawar and secretary of Command Area Development Authority, Maharashtra, also addressed the participants.