BATHINDA, Nov. 23 -- The cotton ginning industry, which was once a flourishing agri-business of Punjab, is now struggling to survive due to a sharp decline in cotton cultivation. Ginners separate lint (white fibre) and seed from raw cotton. Factory operator says for every quintal (100 kg) of unginned cotton, the recovery of lint is 33-36 kg and 63-66 kg of seed. The seed, in turn, is crushed to produce oil and de-oiled cake. Cottonseed oil is used in cooking, while the protein-rich cake is used as an animal feed. According to industry sources, in 2008, there were 422 cotton ginning factories across the state; however, this number has decreased by 93% to only 32 units that are operational during the current kharif marketing season. Entrepreneurs say nearly 10 more units may shut down next season as the ginning sector lacks support from the government. The southwest area of Punjab under cotton has been steadily decreasing due to repeated crop failures since 2021. The decline in cultivation is also attributed to various other reasons, including pest attacks, lack of irrigation support and inclement weather. In 2024, the area under the crop was 96,000 hectares, the lowest ever and this year the acreage improved marginally to 1.29 lakh hectares, and more than 20,000 hectares were damaged due to unseasonal rains. Factory owners say they are facing financial losses as the units are working less than 25% of their capacity. A Bathinda-based ginner, Kaliash Garg, said he has to wind up his unit this season after working for 47 years. Garg, who is also the treasurer of the Punjab Cotton Mills and Ginning Association, attributes the decline to the shortage of raw cotton, pink bollworm attack in the major cotton-growing districts of Bathinda and Mansa and pockets of Barnala, Sangrur and Muktsar. "Cotton used to be a traditional summer crop for the semi-arid districts. As the hybrid cotton is susceptible to pest attacks, farmers are shying away from growing cotton due to economic reasons. Industrialists are setting up spinning mills with high investment, where from ginning to thread making works are done under a single roof, and the ginning operators are unable to compete with them due to low availability of cotton," he said. Garg said that the authorities should focus on introducing the next generation of Bt cotton to boost the traditional crop. A prominent cotton ginner from Malout in Muktsar, Bhagwan Bansal, said against the average minimum requirement of 200 bales or 340 quintals per day, units are struggling to get cotton for processing. "A cotton ginning unit operator has to pay about Rs.10 lakh fixed electricity charges for the nine-month season from September 1 onwards. As the pest attack has severely hit crop production since 2022, we are unable to run factories. We have to pay fixed charges even when electricity is not used," he said. "The Punjab government is quick to grant compensation to affected cotton growers, but the interests of ginners have been overlooked by the respective state governments. The government is biased towards investors," said Bansal. A second-generation ginning operator from Fazilka, Munish Bansal, said that until 2021, his unit was processing 25,000 bales or 42,500 quintals of cotton, but this season, he has got only 2,500 bales. "There is a huge scarcity of cotton, and we are unable to run the factories. After the irrigation system was strengthened over the last decade, farmers of the semi-arid region of Malwa switched from the traditional cotton to a less labour-intensive crop of non-basmati rice," he added....