Expecting a huge surge in cotton production in the State this season, the Telangana government has asked district Collectors and Joint Collectors to prepare farmer-wise and village-wise data on the cultivation of the produce for making arrangements for smooth procurement operations under the price support scheme or minimum support price.
Apart from identifying the farmers who have cultivated cotton with the help of data collected during the Rythu Samagra Survey with details such as survey number, the extent of cotton raised, bank account and Aadhaar by September 15, the Collectors have been asked to go for printing of bar-coded identity cards to be issued to cotton farmers, including tenant farmers.
“Identification of farmers who have actually cultivated cotton is very crucial for procurement of the fibre crop and also to pre-empt traders from misusing the support price platform,” Agriculture Production Commissioner C. Parthasarathi said, when contacted. The Centre has fixed an MSP of ₹4,320 per quintal of long-staple cotton, which is cultivated in the State, against ₹4,160 last year but the market prices at present are ruling in the range of ₹4,900 and ₹5,100 per quintal. However, as the harvesting commences towards the end of September, the prices could head southwards necessitating the MSP procurement operations by the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI). Requesting Union Secretary of Textiles Anant Kumar Singh, in a letter addressed to him, to direct the CCI to open a large number of procurement centres from the commencement of marketing season Mr. Parthasarathi said: With the help of favourable seasonal conditions and limited pest attacks, cotton production is estimated to be about 20 lakh to 22 lakh tonnes this season. The Centre has been urged to open at least 143 procurement centres this season, including 59 new centres in addition to 84 functioned last year.
“Further, we have requested the Union Textiles Secretary to direct the CCI to keep the procurement centres functional on all working days in a week against its practice of operating them only for 2 or 3 days in a week to prevent glut at the centres,” Mr. Parthasarathi stated. Meanwhile, the district Collectors have also been told to create awareness among farmers on the parameters of cotton to be brought to the procurement centres to get the benefit of MSP and discouraging them from selling the produce in villages to the local traders. A district-level committee should also review the procurement operations every Friday followed by a State-level review the next day after the commencement of cotton marketing.
