Continuous Rainfall & Falling Prices Force Farmers to Switch from Pulses to Soyabean, Cotton

Farmers have shifted away from pulses and planted more commercial crops, particularly soyabean and cotton, which are trading much higher than their minimum support prices due to a combination of lower realizations and good monsoon rains (MSP).

According to the latest data compiled by the Union Agriculture Ministry as of July 29, farmers have so far sown 106.18 lakh hectares (lh) of pulses in the current Kharif cropping season, which began on June 1. This is an increase over the previous year's corresponding area coverage of 103.23 lh.

When individual pulses and state-level acreages are considered, the picture changes. The area sown for arhar/tur (pigeon-pea), the country's largest Kharif pulses crop, has decreased from 41.75 lh to 36.11 lh. Increases in moong or green gramme (from 25.29 to 29.26 lh), urad or black gramme (27.94 to 28.01 lh), and other pulses have compensated for this (8.24 to 12.81 lh).

Furthermore, Rajasthan (from 21.65 lh to 32.10 lh), Madhya Pradesh (17.83 to 18.28 lh), and Uttar Pradesh are the only major pulse-growing states that have seen significant increases in area (6.22 to 7.08 lh). Others, including Maharashtra (20.69 to 17.81 lh), Karnataka (18.32 to 16.94 lh), Telangana (4.11 to 2.21 lh), Gujarat (3.80 to 2.86 lh), and Odisha, have seen decreases (3.08 to 2.41 lh).

Arhar acreage has decreased in Karnataka (from 12.73 to 11.50 lh), Maharashtra (12.51 to 11.12 lh), and Telangana (3.43 to 1.88 lh), while moong acreage has increased, primarily in Rajasthan (14 to 19.41 lh) and UP (12.83 to 13.74 lh) (3.46 to 4.55 lh).

The above trend has a simple explanation. In Maharashtra's Latur market, arhar sells for around Rs 7,300 per quintal and soyabean for Rs 6,300. Their MSPs correspond to Rs 6,600 and Rs 4,300 per quintal, respectively. As a result, the spread between the ruling market price and the MSP is wider in soyabean.

"There is also less price certainty in arhar." "The actual price I received during the harvest season was Rs 6,100/quintal, which was less than last year's MSP of Rs 6,300, whereas my average soyabean realization was Rs 6,500, and it is unlikely to fall much," as per Rajkumar Bhosale, a farmer from Bombali village in Latur district's Deoni taluka.

This time, the 45-year-old has planted arhar on only 5 acres and soyabean on the remaining 20 acres. He sowed both crops on 10 acres each last Kharif. "My soyabean yields are 8-9 quintals per acre, compared to 7-8 quintals for arhar." More importantly, while both are planted in June-July, soyabean is harvested in September-October while arhar is harvested in December-January. So I get a marginally higher yield even with a shorter duration in soyabean," Bhosale explains.

Soyabean acreage in India has increased from 111.89 lh to 114.69 lh. Maharashtra (43.83 to 45.62 lh), Rajasthan (9.56 to 11.24 lh), and Karnataka (3.78 to 4.08 lh) have seen increases, while MP (49.76 to 48.76 lh) has seen a slight drop as farmers have planted more urad. Within pulses, moong and urad have been preferred because their maturation times are shorter (60-70 days and 80-90 days, respectively) than arhar's (160-180 days).

Cotton has also surpassed pulses, with 117.65 lh sown under the fibre crop, up from 111.69 lh at this time last year. Maharashtra alone has grown in size from 38.12 lh to 41.21 lh. Cotton has gained acreage in Gujarat (21.77 to 24.50 lh), primarily at the expense of groundnut (18.68 to 16.27 lh).

Ganesh Nanote, a 30-acre farmer from Nimbora village in Maharashtra's Akola district's Telhara taluka, has planted cotton on 20 acres and soyabean on 10 acres. "Normally, I cultivate urad on 5 acres. However, losses from unseasonal rains during harvesting time in September in the previous two years have forced me to convert my entire urad area to cotton. "And why not, with kapas (raw un-ginned cotton) rates so high?" he asks.

At the start of the harvesting season in October-November, kapas prices in Akola were Rs 7,500/quintal, rose to a record Rs 12,000 in March, and are still at Rs 8,000 levels. "I averaged Rs 9,500 per sale." Prices will be good this time as well, and will most likely be higher than the MSP of Rs 6,080/quintal (for medium-staple varieties)," Nanote adds.

Cotton acreage has also increased because all of India's major cotton-growing states - in the South, West, and Northwest - received excess rainfall this monsoon season. Cotton requires more water than soyabean, groundnut, or pulses because it is a 6-8 month crop that is typically harvested over 4-5 pickings until December and right up until February.

(Inputs from Indian Express)