With a record crop of 400 lakh bales expected this season, Indian Cotton Federation (ICF) today appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to direct Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) to procure a minimum of 100 lakh bales and help maintain stability in the market.
The cotton thus procured should later be sold directly to the consuming textile mills alone, which would help maintain stable prices throughout the year and create a win-win situation for the farmers, the Federation said in a memorandum to the Prime Minister.
For the third consecutive year, lndia had retained its position as one of the world's largest cotton producers and the good cotton prices prevailed during last three years and poor remunerative prices from alternative crops, had encouraged the lndian farmers to grow more cotton, it said.
To support farmers' sustenance in cotton and Prime Minister's "Make in lndia initiative", to double the income of farmers, CCl should be advised to act as a voltage stabilizer for prices and procure around 100 lakh bales during the peak season and make it available for consuming mills during the lean season.
This would help stabilise prices for the benefit of farmers across Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and few more states with a monitoring mechanism to see that cotton prices to the farmers do not dip and is around MSP, ICF said.
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