State urges CCI to lift curbs on cotton procurement to help ryots

As farmers growing cotton across the State are growing uneasy over restrictions such as maximum moisture content of 12% and purchase of only 7 quintals of cotton per acre imposed by the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) on disposal of their produce at minimum support price, the State government has appealed to the CCI to lift the restrictions.

Agriculture Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao, along with Agriculture Director B. Gopi, spoke to CCI Chairman and Managing Director Lalit Kumar Gupta over phone on Saturday and brought to his notice various issues faced by cotton farmers, including supply constraints.

The Minister stated that even though access to the Kapas Kisan App is allowed only at 10 pm every day, he has requested the CCI CMD to make this app accessible 24 hours a day for the farming community to register their details for the sale of their produce. Additionally, the Minister asked the CCI chairman to issue instructions to all ginneries in L1, L2 and L3 categories and revise fair average quality norms to allow moisture content up to 20% considering the extended rainy season this year.

Mr. Nageswara Rao also requested the CCI chief to procure 12 quintals of cotton per acre instead of just 7 quintals as the average yield in Telangana is 11.74 quintals per acre as assessed and declared after district-wise cotton picking experiments. He informed the CCI chief that the State government had brought the matter to the notice of the Centre, and said Secretary (Agriculture) K. Surendra Mohan would take up the matter with the Central authorities if necessary.

According to Agriculture Ministry officials, cotton was grown on 47.84 lakh acres during the kharif season and the production was estimated at around 30 lakh tonnes.

Regarding the urea buffer stock in the State, the Minister stated that around 1.5 lakh tonnes is available and another 2 lakh tonnes of fertilizer is expected to arrive in the State this month.