Sangareddy cotton farmers find difficult to get MSP for their produce

The CCI, which has set up 20 procurement centres across the district against the target of 22 centres, is offering lower prices if the moisture content is more than the permissible level.  

Sangareddy: Cotton farmers in Sangareddy district were finding it difficult to get minimum support price (MSP) for their produce at cotton purchasing centres opened by the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) and as well as from the businessmen who were purchasing paddy at the village.

The minimum MSP finalised by the government was Rs 7,020 per quintal of cotton and the CCI will offer this MSP if the moisture in the cotton is below eight per cent. However, the CCI, which has set up 20 procurement centres across the district against the target of 22 centres, is offering lower prices if the moisture content is more than the permissible level.

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Fed up with the treatment, most of the farmers were selling their produce to middlemen, who were coming to the villages to purchase the cotton. These middlemen were offering Rs 800 to Rs 300 less than the MSP. According to agriculture department officials, farmers in Sangareddy district had cultivated cotton in little over 77,000 acres. The estimated production of cotton this year was put at 3 lakh tonnes.

However, the CCI procurement centres have failed to procure 25,000 tonnes of cotton so far. which amounts to nearly 10 per cent of total production. Since the CCI had put stern guidelines to purchasing cotton, the farmers were turning to middlemen to sell their produce. The farmers would need to produce their Pattadar passbook and Aadhar card besides sharing the OTP number sent to the registered phone number.

The farmers would need to give their iris identification if they don’t carry the phone with them. Fearing all these restrictions, most of the cotton farmers stayed away from the CCI centres the statistics also provide evidence to that argument. Taking it as an opportunity, the private jining mill owners deployed their middlemen to purchase the cotton at a lower price. J Nagaiah, a cotton farmer from Athmakur village in Sadasaivpet Mandal, has said that the government must ensure the opening of more purchasing centres by CCI to help the farmers to get MSP for their produce.