Sops for cotton exports as glut may hit prices

Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar announced that the government would launch an incentive scheme for cotton exports to hold the domestic price line in the wake of over-production this year.

The Centre has also asked the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) to purchase cotton at Rs 2,500 a quintal in Maharashtra and other states.

A national fisheries development board is also proposed to be set up to promote aquaculture. This will be modelled after the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), which has helped to promote the dairy sector.

Addressing the three-day social editors' conference that ended here today, Pawar said cotton output had risen this year by 30 per cent and added that yield and quality of the produce was reported to be relatively better. The fresh crop has begun coming to the market in several states, including Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Since the global cotton output has also been good, the prices are likely to face a downward pressure. Although last year cotton growers had received prices ranging from Rs 2,200 to Rs 2,300 a quintal, they might not get such price this year. To arrest this trend, the government had asked the CCI to enter the Maharashtra cotton market that was barred for it because of the state's monopoly in the cotton procurement scheme.

"We also need to promote cotton exports to deal with the problem of excess supply," Pawar said, and added that the government was considering to bring in an incentive scheme for this purpose.

The sops could be the same that was offered recently to boost sugar exports in view of domestic glut. Talking about the country's huge potential for fish production that had remained only partly tapped, the minister said a national fisheries development board would be set up to promote this sector. Besides, the infrastructure for the production of fish seed, berthing and landing facilities for fishing vessels and deep-sea fishing was proposed to be strengthened.

Pawar said there had been discussions on agricultural marketing reforms but the progress in this field had been tardy. A meeting of the state ministers will be convened in Bangalore later this month to ensure that some action is taken on this front.

The reforms will broadly aim at wooing significant investment from the private and cooperative sectors in developing marketing infrastructure, strengthening Agmark laboratories, and creating awareness among the farmers, entrepreneurs and market functionaries about grading, standardisation and quality certification.

Regarding the food situation, the minister said the country had a total grain stock of over 20.3 million tonnes in September-end. This included six million tonnes of rice and 14.2 million tonnes of wheat.