Cotton Corp purchases 1.28 lakh bales from ryots

The Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has purchased 1.28 lakh bales of cotton from the farmers of Guntur, Prakasam, Krishna, Khammam and Nalgonda districts and more of purchases were made in Khammam and Nalgonda districts.

Speaking to Business Standard, CCI general manager T Bhanoji Rao said that the cotton purchases, which had begun in Guntur and Prakasam districts a week ago, would gather steam in the coming days.

Bhanoji Rao said that the CCI has so far offered between Rs 1,850 and Rs 1,950 per quintal of cotton as against the minimum support price of Rs 2,010 in view of the strict quality parameters fixed by the Centre for cotton purchases.

About six lakh bales of cotton have so far arrived into the Andhra Pradesh market as against the estimated crop of 30 lakh bales. While CCI has purchased about 2.28 lakh bales, private traders might have purchased the remaining bales.

He said that the private traders had offered up to a maximum of Rs 1,700 per quintal. Comparatively, the CCI rates as per the quality parameters is profitable for the farmers. The bt cotton is mixed with traditional crop varieties and brought to the market.

He said that of the cotton crop cultivated in about 11.25 lakh hectares in Andhra Pradesh, the crop had been raised in 1.78 lakh hectares in Guntur district, 44,000 hectares in Krishna district, 35,000 hectares in Prakasam district, 95,000 hectares in Nalgonda district and 1.3 lakh hectares in Khammam district and the remaining in other parts of the state.

In view of declining trends in the world cotton market and the sluggish domestic yarn market, this year by and large, has been a disappointing year for farmers.

CCI, in a move to encourage farmers to bring the harvest to its purchase centres, has been meeting the expenses to transport the purchased crop from the 36 centres in the five districts (59 centres in the state) to the ginning mills. The crop is transported even from the purchase centres of Telangana to the mills in Guntur.

Bhanoji Rao said that the farmers are losing on price front as they are reluctant to bring their kapas (cotton with seed) to the CCI purchase centres.

"They should not fell a victim to traders' brokers in villages. They should leisurely sell their crop at the CCI centres. They would incur only Rs. 60-70 per quintal towards transporting their harvest to the purchase centres and other expenses," he said.

"CCI has no powers to purchase the cotton outside the purchase centres. Even in the centres, the market yard officials give stamped identification slips to the sellers. CCI purchases the crop and issues cheques basing on that information. So, it would be difficult for the CCI people to differentiate between farmers and others from among thousands of sellers. Moreover, it takes at least a week or ten days for the CCI to issue cheques to sellers in view of the busy season," he said.

He asked the leaders and associations of farmers and the media to persuade farmers to bring their produce to the CCI purchase centres. CCI did its best by way of campaigning through newspaper advertisements and TV and radio, and ryothu mithra progarames, appealing to farmers to bring their produce to its centres.

He said that though CCI had opened a purchase centre at Tadikonda in Guntur district, not a single farmer had made use of the centre. The Andhra farmers are losing a part of the MSP on two counts "� Rs 20 on length of kapas and Rs 50 on weight of lint (seedless cotton).

"Due to the moisture in cotton, they stand to lose. They should not rush to market but allow the moisture dry up and they would get a better price," he said.

He said the CCI purchased 6,70,624 quintals in the five districts and 63,141 quintals in Adialabad district, 4,14,645 quintals in Warangal district and 6,560 quintals in Rayalaseema districts, making a total purchase of 11,55,000 quintals.