Sowing shortfall hits a tightening market
India**;s **** Kharif cotton season has begun with a sharp setback. Ministry of Agriculture data released on July * show cotton acreage at **.** lakh hectares, down ** per cent from ** lakh hectares a year earlier and **.* lakh hectares below the five-year average. The decline follows one of the weakest June monsoons in more than a century.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), India received **.* mm of rainfall against the normal ***.* mm during June, a deficit of **.* per cent and the fifth-driest June since ****. Moisture stress forced many farmers, particularly in Maharashtra, to re-sow cotton fields after delayed or failed germination.
The acreage decline comes as global cotton fundamentals are tightening and only weeks before the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) must complete the liquidation of its remaining **-lakh-bale inventory by July **. That stockpile is currently the largest domestic buffer against tightening supplies.
