Farmer Gampa Chandra Shekhar, 45, of Bommanapally village in Karimnagar district of Telangana has been cultivating cotton as a monocrop on half of his six acres of land for 18 years. His expenditure per acre is between ₹25,000 and ₹30,000 and when a severe outbreak of pink bollworms occurred in his village in 2016, a significant portion of his cotton crops was destroyed.
‘It was the first time we witnessed this pest infestation in our cotton crops on such a large scale,’ he recalls. ‘The yield and income loss to farmers from pink bollworm was significant.’ It was then he realized that relying on one crop was a risky proposition given the changing adverse weather patterns and rising incidence of pink bollworm attacks on cotton plants. The input costs of growing cotton were also high. ‘I have to spend a lot for chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and insecticides besides the additional cost for hiring labour,’ he explains. In addition, Gampa Shekhar’s land is situated upstream from the Bommanapally cheruvu (tank) and slope. ‘With the heavy rains, the fertile soil is eroded and this has become a regular feature. I lose fertile soil every year and we farmers generally add tank silt (desilted from the tank bed) every two years to stabilize the fertility of the soil.’
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