Telangana tops quality cotton production in India: Niranjan

Hyderabad: Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy on Friday said that Telangana topped the country in quality cotton production and second in the extent of area under which cotton was cultivated. This year, the State government has set a procurement target of 33.20 lakh tonnes, the Minister said during question hour in the Legislative Assembly. The […]

Hyderabad: Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy on Friday said that Telangana topped the country in quality cotton production and second in the extent of area under which cotton was cultivated. This year, the State government has set a procurement target of 33.20 lakh tonnes, the Minister said during question hour in the Legislative Assembly. The government has recognised ginning mills as notified agencies for cotton procurement. Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) procures cotton, if the prices in the market were lesser than Minimum Support Price (MSP), he said.

Explaining the measures taken for procurement of cotton during Vanakalam-2021, the Minister said 376 ginning mills in the State were notified as cotton procurement centres. He also said the government was providing an online cotton software procurement system for cotton MSP operations, for the season 2021-22. Awareness was being created among farmers to maintain Fair Average Quality (FAQ) for obtaining MSP, he informed.

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More than farmers, insurance companies benefited through Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. Earlier, responding to another question, Niranjan Reddy said more than farmers, insurance companies were getting benefited through the crop insurance scheme introduced by the Central government. Under the Fasal Bima Yojana, the State government had paid a premium of Rs 989 crore for 2016-17 and 2017-18. In return, the farmers and State government got claims worth Rs 817 crore. Insurance companies got benefited to the tune of Rs 172 crore, he explained.

Earlier, the Central government had made crop insurance mandatory but last year, it had revamped the scheme and made it voluntarily for farmers and State governments, he informed. Apart from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Punjab and West Bengal were not implementing the revamped Fasal Bima Yojana scheme, he added.

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Last two years cotton procurement details

• 2019-20 season – 21.62 lakh metric tonnes. Cotton was procured from 9.14 lakh farmers, valued at Rs.11,479 crore
• 2020-21 season – 17.89 lakh metric tonnes. Cotton was procured from 5.49 lakh farmers, valued at Rs.10,167 crore

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