Acute shortage of Bt cotton seeds in Telangana

A popular variety of Bt cotton seeds are in acute short supply in Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh this season. Farmers, who have got used to sowing a few particular seed varieties, are going to Nagpur and other places in Maharashtra in search of seeds.

However, the farmers are finding the situation in Maharashtra not very different. As they return empty-handed from dealers, they are left with a choice of either purchasing in black-market or to grow some other crop.

In black-market, a bag of Bt cotton seeds is being sold between Rs. 1500 to Rs. 2700, as against the official price of Rs. 850 to Rs. 930.

The next best choice to grow for cotton farmers is maize, which sells at half the price of cotton.