It is not just cotton. Most other crops have also failed in Telangana. The standing chilli crop in Warangal district has been affected by fruit rot, while the early flowering of the rabi paddy crop has been causing confusion among scientists. Fruit rot has affected about 7,000 hectares of the land under paddy. "We will have to give compensation for other failed crops as well, " says Shalini Mishra deputy commissioner, Warangal. Like cotton, chilli is also a cash-intensive crop, requiring a lot of money for fertilisers and pesticides.

As he sits in his field separating the rotten plants of chilli, Nageshwar Rao rues over 80 per cent of his crop that has been destroyed. "I am not sure if I will get a good price for the good quality chillies either', he says. "All my efforts and investments have gone to waste and only God knows what will happen to me and my family,' he adds.

Rao had sown chilli in one-fourth of his four-hectare land and cotton in the rest. He had hoped that the chilli crop would make up for the losses he suffered in cotton. Now it's desperation time for him. "I cannot even sell my land as there are no buyers. We are sure to starve,' he says with a despondency that is only too common in the state today.