hyderabad
Minister for Agriculture, Tummala Nageswara Rao, has requested the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) to continue cotton procurement in Telangana as the farmers still have a huge quantity of the produce left with them.
Farmers have cultivated the cotton crop in 44.92 lakh acres during the 2023-24 kharif season and the production is estimated at 25.02 lakh tonnes. The CCI had opened 285 cotton purchase centres with the help of the State government and it had purchased 12.31 lakh tonnes cotton worth ₹8,569.13 crore from over 5.36 lakh farmers at minimum support price. Private traders had purchased another 4.97 lakh tonnes of cotton from farmers.
Another 7.1 lakh tonnes of cotton was expected from farmers as the third picking of cotton was in progress in some districts and some quantity of the produce from the first and second pickings was still with farmers. With cotton prices in the international markets ruling high based on the growing demand, the CCI should continue the purchases.
Stopping purchases by the CCI would have an adverse impact on the market prices of the fibre crop and cause loss to the farming community. In case of cotton arrivals with lesser quality, the CCI could fix the price based on its availability as has been the practice, the Minister said.
