Cotton Farmers Association stages protest at CCI regional office in Warangal

Members of the Telangana Cotton Farmers Association staged a protest at the CCI office in Warangal, demanding withdrawal of rules on moisture levels, app registration and yield limits. They also sought changes to the mapping system and opposed the import duty exemption on cotton.

Warangal: The members of the Telangana Cotton Farmers Association staged a protest at the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) regional office here on Friday demanding that the problems faced by farmers in the purchase of cotton be addressed.

Speaking to the media on the occasion, the association state convener Bhukya Chandu Naik, state co-conveners M Shoban, Ch Ramu, P Krishna Reddy and others demanded that the CCI withdraw rules such as Kisan Kapas App registration, the requirement of 8 to 12 percent moisture content and the seven quintals per acre limit.

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They said cotton should be purchased irrespective of moisture content, farmers should be allowed to sell the produce freely and 12 quintals per acre should be procured as in the past. The State government has to pay a bonus of Rs 475 per quintal, the leaders said.

In the pretext of mapping in cotton procurement, farmers in villages close to cotton mills were being allotted mills in distant places, forcing them to spend huge amounts on transportation. Hence, the mapping system has to be withdrawn, they said.

In addition, farmers were compelled to bear huge transport costs as the CCI, which wanted to control ginning mills in the pretext of L1, L2, L3, L4 and L5 ranking, had not set up procurement centres at the mills close to farmers, the association said.

They wanted the Centre to take back its decision to exempt all varieties of cotton from 11 percent import duty.