Cotton farmers protest CCI restrictions and Kapas Kisan app glitches amid Kharif chaos

Cotton farmers across Telangana are protesting against the Cotton Corporation of India’s revised procurement norms, which have capped purchases and introduced digital hurdles through the Kapas Kisan app. Despite a decent Kharif yield, farmers face rejections due to moisture levels and lack of storage at ginning mills.

Hyderabad: Telangana’s cotton farmers are getting increasingly restive as the Cotton Corporation of India’s new procurement norms, meant to curb malpractices and ensure transparency, have instead triggered confusion and hardship, forcing many small farmers to sell at distress prices or watch their produce deteriorate.

Farmers across Yadadri Bhongir, Narayanpet, Bhadradri Kothagudem and Adilabad districts have reported losses, with protests erupting on national highways.

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The Kharif harvest began amid untimely rains, while the mandatory Kapas Kisan app requiring farmers to register with land records, crop certificates and Aadhaar-linked details before booking slots has added to procedural hurdles.

CCI has now capped procurement at seven quintals per acre, reduced from the earlier 12-quintal limit, even as State assessments estimate yields of up to 11.74 quintals despite erratic weather. This has left Telangana’s five-lakh cotton farmers on edge.

“Simplify documentation, lift caps, expand mills or farmers will be left at the mercy of private players,” said Madikanti Narsaiah, a small farmer from Dornakal mandal in Mahabubabad, waiting to sell his produce harvested from his two-acre holding.

“Otherwise this season’s bounty will turn into a bitter harvest,” he warned. The digital system, though aimed at eliminating middlemen and guaranteeing the MSP of Rs.8,110 per quintal, is proving difficult for many to navigate.

“Eighty percent of us don’t know how to use the app, and technical glitches are turning us away,” he said.

Without booking slots, trucks loaded with kapas lie in queues for days at ginning mills, only to be rejected for lack of storage or arbitrary limits. Procurement centres were scheduled to open after Diwali in various locations, yet farmers continue to wait.

“Nature’s fury with floods and cyclones already slashed our output. Now CCI has cut procurement by five quintals, leaving us to depend on traders who offer half the MSP,” fumed Venkateshwarlu from Ramannapet in Yadadri Bhongir.

Moisture issues have added to the distress, with recent rains pushing moisture levels beyond the 8-12 percent threshold. CCI officials are imposing deductions of up to 1.5 kg per quintal or outright rejecting stocks as ‘wet’, despite earlier assurances of field-level procurement.

The situation has pushed farmers towards private traders, curtailing their chances of securing fair prices. CPI Yadadri Bhongir district secretary Yanala Damodar Reddy demanded immediate condition-free procurement centres at Ramannapet, urging the government to protect rain-hit harvests.