Farmers say ₹500 cr. for cotton is too little.

• Maharashtra cotton farmers are demanding significant technological changes and increased allocations to address productivity issues.

• Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman allocated ₹500 crore for the National Cotton Technology Mission in the Union Budget for 2025-26.

• However, farmers, experts, and activists argue that this allocation alone is insufficient to address the productivity crisis.

• Cotton yields have been declining, with the current demand for cotton from the textile sector being around 350 lakh bales, while the current production is around 300 lakh bales.

• Farmers and experts attribute the lower productivity to the lack of newer seeds and innovative farming methods.

• The Bollgard-2 variety of cotton, used by farmers since independence, has begun to decline due to bollworm attacks.

• The government needs to allocate more than the current ₹500 crore to introduce a more efficient farming method.

• Ashok Dhawale, national president of All India Krisan Sabha, argues that the budget allocation is merely cosmetic and fails to address fundamental problems in the cotton sector.