The plea of ginning mills in the State for more incentives would be taken to the notice of the Chief Minister, Minister for Agriculture S. Niranjan Reddy stated here on Monday. The ginning mills are already getting power subsidy.
At a meeting held with the representatives of the ginning mills association the Minister stated that cotton was expected to be cultivated in about 75 lakh acres during the kharif (vanakalam) season this year and the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) had itself certified the quality of cotton produced in the State. Although Maharashtra was top in the extent of cultivation, Telangana was ahead in terms of production of the fibre crop, he noted.
Stating that the government was committed to encourage ginning mills in the wake of increase in the extent of the crop the Minister said more incentives would be given to them after taking the matter to Chief Minster’s notice. He stated that the number of ginning mills was less than 100 before formation of Telangana, 350 new mills had come up during the last seven years and another 30 were under construction.
In the past, the CCI and traders used to take the cotton purchased here to Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh but now there was no necessity. The ginning mills which were set up mostly in rural areas would provide direct employment to 100 and indirect employment to another 500 per mill, the Minister noted.
Besides, the by-products of cotton such as oil, cake and solvents had also good demand at national and international level, the Minister stated. The government was also formulating cotton solvent policy to encourage the ginning mills.
Stating that research was on developing cotton varieties which could be cultivated in rabi (summer) by withstanding high temperatures the Minister said if the research was successful it would be helpful to Telangana as the crop could be cultivated in the two seasons instead of paddy.
To overcome the problem of labour in cotton cultivation the government was encouraging mechanisation and single-picking varieties would be very helpful for mechanised harvesting (cotton picking). The Minister assured that the suggestions and requests of ginning mills would be taken to the Chief Minister’s notice.
