BATHINDA, March 2 -- As the cotton sowing season begins in April, apprehension grips Punjab's cotton belt with farmers and experts wary of reviving the traditional kharif crop due to pest-prone hybrid seeds and an acute shortage of farm labour. For this year, the state agriculture department has set a target to cover 1.5 lakh hectares, which would be about 30,000 hectares more than the kharif sowing season of 2024-25. In 2021, cotton was sown on 2.5 lakh hectares in Punjab. Women are the main workforce traditionally engaged in picking cotton balls in the semi-arid southern districts of Punjab. Experts and farmers say cotton acreage in Punjab has steadily declined since 2021-22. Due to the sharp decline in work in cotton fields, farmworkers are switching to other jobs. A progressive farmer from Bathinda's Bajak village, Baldev Singh, said that as cotton growers struggle with pest attacks and hostile weather conditions, farm labourers prefer working in villages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS). "As crops have failed successively since 2021, there are fewer 'siri' or farm workers in the villages. These workers remain engaged in less labour-intensive work in non-farm activities," he added. Gurjit Singh Romana, a farmer from Danewal Satkosi in Fazilka - the leading district for cotton cultivation - said that after five successive crop failures, farmers are unwilling to risk another season. "Bt2 cotton seeds are prone to the deadly pink bollworm. Neither the government organisations nor the private sector has convinced farmers that the crop remains safe. Under such risky circumstances, an average farmer is sceptical and the area under cotton may not increase even as most farmers in the semi-arid zone have little option to switch to any other kharif crop," said Romana. State agriculture director Gurjeet Singh Brar said the field inputs confirm that the cotton belt is grappling with a scarcity of workers, and the trend has been getting serious for the last 2-3 years. He said that the result lies in introducing the mechanisation of cotton harvest. Brar attributes the trend to the cotton fields getting infested by pest attacks and unfavourable weather conditions. "Cotton is an economic lifeline of the southwest region of Punjab. Unfriendly climatic conditions and old generation cotton seeds, which are vulnerable to the deadly pink bollworm infestation, have hit the acreage and productivity. Farmers rue that they do not find workers to harvest the natural fibre, and the farm labourers are finding employment in non-agricultural activities," he said. Brar said that the department has coordinated with the district administrations and other departments and started the removal of weeds, cotton sticks of the previous seasons as an annual preparedness drive for cotton sowing. Brar said the core of the problem is the seeds' vulnerability to pest attacks. "New generation cotton seeds may give some hope, but trials for such seeds having resistance to the pink bollworm are still at the early testing phase. We will have to wait for another season before testing the new seeds and receiving approval from the central government for sowing," he added....