Cotton farmers demand better MSP

Hyderabad: Ahead of the cotton procurement process to begin, the State farmers’ organisations express their fears that recycling of cotton at the procurement centres by middlemen may make a dent in the income of cotton farmers. Repeated requests for intervention by the State and Central governments, to put an end to the practice has fallen on deaf ears, they pointed out.

Farmers in the State cultivate cotton in an extent of about 40 lakh hectares. But, following the advice of the State government to cultivate red gram, the overall cultivated area of cotton during the last agriculture season had come down to 31 lakh hectares. However, farmers could not get remunerative prices for red gram. But, during the same period, the cotton procurement prices were encouraging.

Due to the hike in procurement price, cotton cultivation bounced back to its original extent and 6 lakh more hectares added during the current agriculture season. The total expected output of cotton in the State is likely to touch about 50 lakh bales this year.

Speaking to The Hans India, Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha (ABKS) vice-president, Sarampalli Malla Reddy said, ``Year after year, the unholy alliances between the black sheep in the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) and middlemen have been resulting in huge losses to the cotton farmers, who are already facing tough time in getting remunerative price for their produce”.

The CCI officials reject the cotton bales brought by the farmers to the procurement centres citing them of low quality.

This leaves the farmers to lose the hope of getting the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and they resort to panic selling to the private people at much below than the MSP. ``The private payers, in turn, bribing some of the CCI officials engaged in the procurement process and sell the same cotton procured from the farmers at the MSP rates to the CCI,” he said.

The practice of recycling of cotton is taking a toll on the farmers’ revenues benefitting only the middlemen and the black sheep in the CCI, he added.

Though the Telangana State government and several others had recommended an MSP of a little over Rs 7,000 per quintal, the Centre had fixed the same at about Rs 4, 320, for the current procurement season.

The MSP fixed is not even half of the investment made by the farmers. It was against this backdrop that there is a need for immediate intervention of the governments to save farmers from the illegal activity of the recycling of cotton at the procurement centres, said All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha leader Achuta Rama Rao.