Cotton price reaches Rs 10k mark, but farmers fail to reap dividends

Cotton prices have surged to Rs 10,000 per quintal in the erstwhile Adilabad district, but most farmers could not benefit as they had already sold their produce earlier at lower rates. Farmers blamed volatile markets and moisture-related procurement conditions for their losses

Adilabad: The price of cotton produce has drastically gone up. However, the considerable spike failed to cheer farmers as most of them had already sold their cotton produce.

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The price of cotton, commonly referred to as white gold, reached the mark of Rs 10,000 per quintal in the last few days. Ironically, the price shot up after a major portion of farmers sold their produce and could not reap the benefits. Except for a few farmers, 98 percent of farmers had already sold their cotton produce either to the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) or private traders at an average price of Rs 7,000 per quintal.

Private traders reasoned that the prices of cotton bales, seeds and oil had gone up in the international market, resulting in a spike in cotton prices. They stated that a bale was now priced at Rs 70,000 as against Rs 55,000 earlier. Similarly, seeds were being purchased at Rs 4,500 per quintal compared to Rs 4,000 per quintal earlier. The price of cotton seed oil has also gone up.

The CCI commenced procurement of cotton produce by fixing a minimum support price of Rs 8,110 per quintal containing 8 percent moisture content at agriculture market yards across the district in October. Cotton farmers staged protests requesting the CCI to increase the price of cotton. They were left with no option but to sell the cotton at around Rs 7,000 per quintal as the produce had moisture content of more than 8 percent.

Barely a small section of farmers, who managed to store cotton produce in their houses, are now able to make profits with the price of cotton reaching Rs 10,000 per quintal. A major chunk of farmers suffered losses in the cultivation of the commercial crop even as the price continued to skyrocket. They regretted that they were unable to earn adequate income as the cotton market remained volatile.

The erstwhile Adilabad district, comprising Adilabad, Mancherial, Kumram Bheem Asifabad and Nirmal districts, is regarded as one of the largest producers of cotton. The area under cotton cultivation is 12.60 lakh acres. The expected cotton yield was 80 lakh quintals. The CCI has procured around 40.25 lakh quintals, while private traders purchased the remaining produce.