Cotton Harvest in India to Tumble as Dry Weather Hurts Crops

The cotton harvest in India, the world’s second-biggest grower, is poised to decline as the worst monsoon since 2009 parches fields and curbs planting, potentially cutting exports for the first time in three years.

The crop in Gujarat, the largest producer, may plunge as much as 30 percent in the harvest starting Oct. 1 from 12 million bales of 170 kilograms each a year earlier, said Hasmukhbhai Raval, chairman of the Gujarat State Cooperative Cotton Federation. The planted area in the state will probably slump by as much as 25 percent from 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres) in 2011-2012, he said.