Despite the government announcing a minimum support price (MSP) of ₹4,320 per quintal for cotton, the farmers are being forced to sell it at as low as ₹1000 per quintal at the Karimnagar agricultural market yard.
The farmers, who were told to enter the marketyard with their produce before 9 a.m. on all working days, were forced to wait for hours for the traders to arrive. The traders instead of bidding for the produce were arbitrarily fixing a price for the produce. They were offering between ₹1000 and 3600 per quintal.
The traders were unmoved by the pleas of the farmers for a better price. “This is a high price for your produce. Take it or else dump your produce in the garbage as it is of very poor quality and damaged in the rains,” the traders told the farmers.
“This amount will not even cover the labour charges involved for plucking cotton,” cries Vajramma, a farmer from Cherlabuthkur village. “We have invested more than ₹10,000 per acre for cultivating cotton. But, we are getting less than ₹5,000 per acre and incurring in huge debts,” she complained.
Ramreddy, a farmer from Gopalpur village, alleged that the traders and officials had colluded in offering such low prices. Neither the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) authorities have entered the market for purchase of cotton nor the marketyard officials were inspecting the crop and its quality by testing through moisture checking machines and the seed quality to fix the price for the cotton, he said.
The market committee officials said that they had informed the farmers to bring their produce only after drying it and ensuring the proper percentage of moisture to get the MSP. Pointing out that the CCI is yet to start its procurement in the marketyards, they hoped that the CCI would enter soon when the cotton arrivals increase into the marketyards.
