Cotton procurement begins amidst protests in Adilabad

Farmers seeking a fair price for their produce agreed to sell cotton to private traders for ₹6,840 per quintal. The process went smoothly on the second day, with traders purchasing around 10,000 quintals of cotton on Saturday, according to Marketing department officials.

Adilabad: Procurement of cotton produce began amid protests by farmers on the first day of the process on Friday.

Farmers, who demanded a remunerative price for their produce, agreed to sell the cotton for Rs 6,840 per quintal to private traders. The process was a smooth affair on the second day. Around 10,000 quintals of cotton were bought by the traders on Saturday, officials of the Marketing department said.

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The procurement saw a deadlock with farmers protesting seeking a remunerative price on the first day of the process for the first time in the history on Friday from 10 am to 9 pm. While the traders agreed to pay Rs 6,500 per quintal with 12 percent of moisture as against the MSP of Rs 7,520 fixed by the CCI, farmers insisted officials be allowed to sell cotton consisting 19 percent of moisture at 10 am.

The farmers denied the offer and continued to protest seeking a higher price for their produce without measuring the percentage of moisture. Collector Rajarshi Shah and Superintendent of Police Gaush Alam held consultations with traders and farmers, but in vain. The traders were reluctant to raise the price citing a higher percentage of moisture till 11 am.

The farmers touched the feet of the Collector requesting him to take steps to ensure remunerative price for the cotton at 1 pm. Some other farmers staged a rasta-roko at Punjab Chowk, raising slogans against the government and Chief Minister Revanth Reddy. They faced inconvenience as they did not take lunch following the deadlock at 3pm.

However, the traders agreed to buy the cotton for Rs 6,896 per quintal without gauging the percentage of traders as per a request made by the Collector at 9 pm. The farmers expressed displeasure over the difference of the price of the cotton. They were forced to wait throughout the night to sell their produce. They had to sleep on the cotton laden tractors and trolleys. They were given tokens to sell the cotton on Saturday.
Officials estimated that erstwhile Adilabad district would register a yield of 71.05 lakh quintals this year. The cotton crop was raised in 10.15 lakh acres in the region in the Vanakalam season. Two procurement centres were opened in Adilabad town, while one each were opened in in Boath, Sonala, Indravelli, Pochera, Narnoor, Ichoda, Gadiguda, Gudihatnoor, Bela, Sirikonda and Jainath mandal centres.