Cotton farmers across erstwhile Medak worried as they are denied MSP

Continuous rains and the onset of winter are making life difficult for farmers to keep the moisture between 8 and 12, as stipulated by the CCI.

Sangareddy: Farmers across the erstwhile Medak district are being forced to sell their produce much below the minimum support price as the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) purchasing centres are refusing to purchase their crop citing moisture and lack of quality.

Continuous rains and the onset of winter are making life difficult for farmers to keep the moisture between 8 and 12, as stipulated by the CCI. When the CCI centre refuses to offer MSP, the farmers sell their produce to ginning mill owners at much below the MSP. Against the MSP of Rs 7,521, the farmers were being offered Rs 6,200 to Rs 6,400. Interestingly, the CCI will also sell their produce to the same ginning industry in the locality.

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The erstwhile Medak district had 46 ginning industries where the CCI had opened the purchasing centres. Fearing denial after hearing the stories from other farmers in the villages, many farmers sold their produce to the middlemen roaming in the villages.

Speaking to Telangana Today, a farmer Swamy, a resident of Chebarithi in Markook mandal, said he took his first harvest to the CCI centre in Gajwel where the officials refused to buy citing lack of quality. Later, he sold it to the ginning industry at Rs 6,450 per quintal. The story of the Swamy just reflects the cotton farmer’s state of life in Medak district.

The farmers in Sangareddy cultivated cotton on 3.40 lakh acres while the area under cotton cultivation in Siddipet was put at 1.08 lakh acres. The area under cotton cultivation in Medak was 40,000 acres. The farmers urged the government to provide MSP to all their produce.