Cotton purchase through CCI’s new app to begin on pilot basis in Medak

CCI will pilot its Kapas Kisan app in Medak to ensure transparent cotton procurement, curb middlemen, and streamline farmer participation, with 49 centres being prepared to handle this year’s arrivals.

Sangareddy: Cotton procurement is set to go tech-savvy this year with the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) launching its mobile application Kapas Kisan to facilitate purchases directly from farmers.

Officials of the marketing department said the initiative would ensure transparency in procurement and help eliminate middlemen and traders. In the past, traders bought cotton at lower prices from farmers and later sold it to CCI at the Minimum Support Price (MSP), a practice the corporation now intends to curb.

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The app-based procurement will be introduced on a pilot basis at selected purchasing centres in Medak district. Farmers under the jurisdiction of these centres must enrol using the phone numbers registered with their agriculture extension officers at the time of filing their cultivation details.

They are required to provide their name, Aadhaar number, bank account details, pattadar passbook number, and details of the cultivated area. Once registered, farmers can book slots to sell their produce. The CCI will allot specific dates and time slots to each farmer, reducing congestion at centres and sparing farmers the long wait.

Last year, serious allegations were levelled against some marketing and CCI officials, who were accused of colluding with middlemen to exploit farmers.

In the erstwhile Medak district, cotton has been cultivated on 4.93 lakh acres this year, with Sangareddy accounting for the largest share at 3.50 lakh acres. Farmers in Siddipet cultivated 1.08 lakh acres, while Medak reported just 35,000 acres under cotton.

To handle the arrivals, CCI is preparing to open 49 procurement centres across the district this season.