Satyavan, a cotton farmer in Kirtan village in Hisar district. | Photo credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap
In Haryana’s dusty heartland of Hisar, about 180 kilometers west of Delhi, Satyavan, a weathered farmer in his 50s, recounts the dwindling fortunes of cotton farming. A tall figure with a gruff demeanor and close-cropped gray hair sits amid the farmers of Kirtan Village, his sharp features etched with worry.
For 25 years, Satyavan cultivated the land and grew cotton as a Kharif crop, but the returns were dismal for the past decade. Last year, he sowed 5 acres only to incur a loss of ₹15,000. He blames the relentless pink bollworm, which has been ravaging his crops since 2014. “When you factor in the cost of seed, fertilizer, diesel and harvesting, the loss is huge,” he says.
Dayanand Dhaka, 53, sitting next to him, his pale gray stubble glistening in the sunlight, speaks of growing cotton as a Sisyphean task. “Three to four cents an acre, that’s all I got last year,” he says, his voice tinged with defeat. “Costs have outstripped my meager earnings. I am ₹40,000 in the red.”
Three to four cents an acre, that’s all I got last year. The costs outstripped my meager returns. He has me ₹ 40,000 in red Dajanand Dhaka, Farmer, Village Kirtan, Hisar, Haryana | Photo credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap
It’s a story that repeats itself over the course of 5-6 years: the relentless onslaught of rosacea, the elusive government Minimum Support Price (MSP) and the crushing reality of survival. “Government agencies said my cotton was not up to par, so I sold it to private buyers at ₹6,200 per quintal, ₹1,600 less than the MSP,” recounts Dhaka resignedly. Dhaka says he insured his crop every year but never received the insurance money.
| Video Credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap, Almas Mohammad
The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Report 2025 states that the total area under cotton for Haryana has declined from 0.72 million hectares in 2019–20 to 0.40 million hectares in 2024–25, reducing the state’s share from 5.36% to 3.47% of the total area under the national crop.
In its latest report, the Department of Agricultural Economics, Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (CCSHAU) estimated that cotton growers suffered a loss of ₹ 15,143 per acre in the last Kharif season. Cotton is best grown through Haryana’s western and southwestern districts of Sirsa, Fatehabad, Jhajjar, Charkhi Dadri, Bhiwani and Jind.
What the study found
The 34-page report titled “Economics of Major Kharif Crops in Haryana-2025” calculates the cost of cultivation and production and net returns in 18 of Haryana’s 23 districts for seven crops: paddy, cotton, bajra, mung bean, grape bean (locally known as guar), maize and jowar.
According to the report, the average variable cost of cotton cultivation per acre for the state was ₹22,821 and the total cost, including transportation, land rental value and management charges, came to ₹40,024. The gross returns per acre were ₹24,882, which also included income from by-products. The average production was four cents per acre.
Hisar, Fatehabad and Charkhi Dadri recorded a net loss of ₹ 17,515, ₹ 17,315 and ₹ 15,276 per acre respectively, which is higher than the state average. The loss per acre of ₹ 9,548 for Rewari was lower than the state average.
For the purpose of the study, each area was classified into different crop zones based on existing crops. About 40 farmers were randomly selected from four villages representing different crop areas and information was collected. Although the report cautions that the sample size for data collection was not large, it says the results are broad indicators for various issues involved in the decision-making process for growing various Kharif crops in Haryana.
Vinay Mehla, research assistant in CCSHAU’s Department of Agricultural Economics, sheds light on the cotton crisis. Historically, he says, cotton has faced threats from pests such as spotted, American and pink bollworms. The introduction of genetically modified Bt cotton seeds in the early 2000s, infused with Bacillus thuringiensis genes, initially mitigated the pink bollworm threat. However, in early 2010, the pest developed significant resistance, leading to devastating yield losses. “In the pre-swelling season, yields ranged from 10 to 12 cents per acre, now they’re less than half that. Last year’s floods made the situation even worse,” Mehla says.
Vinay Mehla, Research Assistant working at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (CCSHAU) Hisar in Kirtan village of Hisar district, Haryana. | Photo credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap
He is a supporter of comprehensive reforms with an emphasis on the development of local varieties and dedicated funding. He is calling for an emergency cabinet meeting to address the crisis and warns that cotton farming, already in a downward trend, could be a thing of the past within a few years if not checked.
Last year, yields averaged four cents per acre, fetching ₹5,000 to ₹6,000 per quintal, leaving farmers at a loss. As cotton cultivation shrinks, farmers, industry and the economy face dire consequences, including increased imports and lost income. “Those who still grow cotton are hanging on by a thread, mostly because of its byproducts,” notes Mehla.
Exhausted gold
Haryana cotton, which once thrived in the region’s arid climate and sandy loam soil, is now struggling. Dying yields left farmers like Dayanand and Satyavan with few options. Alternative Kharif crops like guar and mung bean are susceptible to blight. The highly saline groundwater in the region is unsuitable for paddy fields, and the low yields of bajra make this labor-intensive crop economically unviable.
Satyavan’s experiment with cotton KR-64, a desi, hybrid variety, failed last year, yielding just two cents per acre. Farmers are stuck between low yields and unviable alternatives, with their economic stability hanging in the balance. The transition to new crops depends on a number of factors, including climatic conditions, labor availability, market demand and, above all, the right price.
Farmers in Hisar’s cotton belt are struggling and rely on wheat and mustard to stay afloat, says Sandeep, a farmer who owns 6 acres of land. “Agriculture is becoming a losing business,” he adds. Despite the rising input costs of SMEs, farmers have meager profits. “In 2005, one quintal of food grains bought 10 grams of gold, now it is a fraction,” says Sandeep.
Sandeep, a cotton farmer at Kirtan Village in Hisar District, Haryana. | Photo credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap
Diesel prices tell a similar story. A barrel of diesel was bought for one cent of grain. Now farmers need three cents per barrel. “The government needs to address this imbalance between price and input costs. Farmers are now moving to paddy fields, despite water problems, or exploring alternatives such as poultry farming or even selling land,” says Ramandeep, a journalist-farmer.
Let’s move on to the rice
In Sirsa, Haryana’s top cotton-producing region, the area under cotton cultivation has shown a gradual decline for five years and has seen a decline of 34.62% as of 2020, according to district agriculture department data. Farmers are also abandoning cotton as yield per hectare has decreased. From 714 kg per hectare in 2019, the average cotton yield in Sirsa fell to 264 kg per hectare in 2022; rebounded to 583 kg per hectare in 2023 and fell to 534 kg per hectare the following year.
Despite Sirsa’s dry climate being historically and agroclimatically more suitable for this crop, farmers are switching to rice, a water-intensive crop. Data from the district agriculture department shows that the area under paddy (rice) cultivation has increased from 1,00,300 hectares in 2020 to 1,55,650 hectares in 2024, a jump of 55.18%.
Cotton is a crop prone to pests like pink bollworm, whitefly and is also affected by sudden changes in weather conditions, forcing farmers to switch to alternative crops despite various government schemes to promote water-friendly crops, says Deputy Director of Agriculture, Sirsa, Sukhdev Singh Kamboj.
Under the ‘Mera Pani-Meri Virasat (My Water, My Legacy)’ scheme, the Haryana government is providing an incentive of ₹8,000 per acre to farmers who grow water crops like maize, pulses and cotton instead of rice to conserve depleting groundwater levels. Apart from causing economic distress to farmers, the decline in cotton production has also hit the Haryana government’s efforts to stem the state’s rapidly depleting groundwater table.
“The Haryana government is also offering farmers growing desi cotton an incentive of ₹ 3,000 per acre as it requires significantly less water and is resilient to climate challenges. However, it has not been able to find many takers as local varieties command lower prices compared to Bt cotton and market demand is inconsistent, though the average yield per hectare remains flat,” says Kamboj. Desi varieties are also comparatively more labor intensive compared to higher density hybrids which can be harvested mechanically.
Read: How cotton colonized the world
However, many farmers claim that local varieties are not readily available, making it difficult for them to avail of the government scheme. The government is also offering cotton farmers an incentive of ₹2,000 per acre (maximum ₹4,000 per farmer) under its Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programme, but all these efforts have so far failed to lure farmers back to cotton, adds Kamboj.
Struggle for farm work
The decline in cotton production also affected agricultural workers. Playing cards under a tree in Jhajjar’s Kherka Gujjar village, surrounded by his Scheduled Caste friends, Ishwar, who often share in the farm work, says the shift by local owners to paddy cotton in the area has hit farm workers like him “really hard”.
“Cotton harvesting requires more hands compared to paddy harvesting. Landlords also prefer migrant laborers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh for paddy sowing and harvesting because of their expertise and lower wages. Locals prefer cotton picking,” says the 48-year-old. He adds that, like many others in the village, he now goes to the city to work as a construction worker.
Birmati, another farm worker, says she would earn ₹10,000-15,000 every year by picking cotton earlier during the Kharif harvest season. “The decline in cotton production over the years has reduced the demand for seasonal work, especially for women who manage much of the picking process,” she says. This can eventually drive workers to urban areas and strain urban infrastructure.
Traditionally a sugarcane belt, Jhajjar has seen a sudden increase in cotton cultivation after the arrival of Bt cotton due to high production and market value. “Cotton cultivation in Jhajjar peaked in 2021 with 32,437 acres of cotton under cultivation.
The government’s incentive scheme for growing water-saving crops has also helped farmers lean towards this crop,” says Sub-Divisional Officer (Agriculture), Jhajjar, Jagjit Sangwan.However, the impact of pink bollworm and low prices has hit farmers hard.
“My grandfather bought 2.5 acres of agricultural land with earnings from just four acres of cotton cultivation. But today, farmers are making losses in cotton cultivation,” says Mehla, adding that there may be no cotton farms in Haryana soon.
The area under cotton cultivation in India also decreased by 14.84% between 2019–20 and 2024–25, with production falling from 36.07 million bales (170 kg in each bale) to 29.72 million bales.
ashok.kumar@thehindu.co.in
Edited by Sunalini Mathew
