Cultivation of cotton in the rice-fallows of Madras State - The need for a proper approach

Abstract

The cultivation of Cambodia cotton as off-seasonal crop in the rice-fallows of Madras State is of recent origin. The experiments conducted in Madras state from the year 1948 (Balasubramanian, 1952) have shown that cotton crop planted after the harvest of paddy in rice-fallows grows well, flowers normally, sets fruits freely and yields upto 1,700 lb. of seed cotton per acre, by the middle of July i. e., within five months from the date of sowing, if properly attended to. It is reported (Neelakantan et al, 1959) that by judicious application of fertilizers and by adopting suitable spacing the yield of P. 216 F Cotton could be increased considerably. It has been established (Kesava Iyengar el al, 1958) that the cultivation of cotton as an off-seasonal crop in the rice-fallows does not depress the yield of paddy, provided the paddy crop receives the manurial doses normally given to it and the available cotton residue only helps to augment the supply of green matter to the paddy crop. With all the proved merits for the successful utilization of rice-fallows for growing cotton, the cultivation of cotton in rice-fallows has not made much progress.