Lower planting areas and weather disturbance drag down production

According to AGRICOOP, cotton planting areas are estimated to decline by 7.8% year on year to 12.015 million hectares in 2021/22 season. Except for a slight increase in Orissa, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, other regions witness a decline.

In addition, cotton crop planting and development was damaged by the weather. On the one hand, excessive rainfall was poured on the crops during the intensive planting period in July, and later, the rainfall was obviously less in Aug. The distribution was uneven. On the other hand, the rainfall in the major cotton producing regions of Gujarat and Punjab was obviously low, but that in Telangana and Haryana was excessive, which was also uneven on the geographic position. Moreover, extreme bad weather appeared in some regions, affecting the crop development and yield.