CCI officials, agents make cotton farmers bleed

Warangal: Caught between the devil and the deep sea, the cotton farmers in the region are living a cursed life. First, they confronted a prolonged dry spell which not only escalated the input expenditure of the cotton cultivation, but also halved the produce, compared to last year’s eight to 12 quintals an acre.

As if this problem was not enough, now the cotton farmers have to confront the State-run agency, Cotton Corporation of India (CCI), which in reality established to protect their interests by ensuring remunerative price to their produce.

Often there is a commotion at the Enumamula Agriculture Market, which is said to be one of the biggest in Asia, especially, during the cotton harvesting season where around 20 lakh quintals of kapas (seed cotton) is procured here.

With no remunerative price in sight unlike last year where the price went up to as high as Rs 6,000 a quintal, farmers had to resort to the CCI’s minimum support price offer of Rs 4,050 a quintal this season.

This has led to an alleged nexus between the commission agents (adthi in local parlance) and the CCI officials.

It may be mentioned here that CBI had seized Rs 30 lakh, three kg of gold and 30 kilos of silver from the residence of the CCI officer K. Nagamalleswar Rao in Warangal on February 12. He was CCI purchasing officer at Enumamula Agricultural Market Yard during 2004-2007. The raid was conducted following High Court orders.

More often it is alleged that the CCI procurement centres are intentionally rejecting the farmers’ produce on the pretext of high moisture content. As per the CCI norms, the moisture content in the kapas should be between eight and 12 per cent. The delay in CCI’s cheque payment process is another reason that was frustrating the farmers.

With no way out, the helpless farmers are forced to approach the commission agents to sell away their produce at around Rs 3,400 per quintal. The same produce is being sold to CCI in the name of farmers by the agents and middlemen. It may be mentioned here that many farmers rely on commission agents or middlemen for finances to carry out their farming. Virtually these farmers’ bank accounts are being run by the commission agents. Due to this bogus transaction, the commission agents are making at least Rs 500 to Rs 600 per quintal. And this was allegedly shared by both the parties.

Enumamula market yard secretary Ajmeera Raju said that so far the market had received 14.63 lakh quintals of kapas this season. He said that despite their efforts farmers are falling prey to middlemen only because of their financial constraints.

“We were forced to approach the commission agents as the CCI in the name of norms reject our produce,” Madugula Malla Reddy, a farmer from Pochampally under Regonda mandal, told The Hans India.

Another farmer Katkuri Prabhu of Parkal blamed the CCI officials for procuring the same produce, which they rejected earlier in the name of high moisture content, from the middlemen.

Telangana State Rytu Sangham State president T. Visweswar Rao, a farmer himself, said, “All the hard work of the farmers, who incurred an expenditure of Rs 25,000 per acre, is ending in the hands of middlemen and the officials involved in it.” He demanded the government to conduct a probe into the CCI’s cheque payments to the farmers to find out whether they are the real cultivators.