COTTON-Waiting for Sunshine

COTTON Waiting for Sunshine THE cotton trade's thinking on the 1990-91 crop prospects has undergone a perceptible change over the past few weeks. Initial expectations of crop of over 140 lakh bales based on the increase in the area sown under cotton in most states (other than Gujarat and Tamil Nadu) and assumption of normal weather conditions have been revised down to around 130/131 lakh bales. While 81 per cent of the districts in the country have received normal to excess rainfall, climatic conditions since late September have been far from being conducive to the healthy progress of the cotton crop. The delay in the withdrawal of the monsoon and consequently the excessive moisture is reported to have resulted in bigger vegetative growth of the plant at the cost of boll formation with inevitable adverse effect on the yield. The Cotton Corporation of India has revised its preliminary estimate of 136.25 lakh bales to 131 lakh bales. This again is based on ideas of satisfactory weather conditions till harvest time.