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Cotton farmers prefer to sell produce to private millers
Major market yards in Medak district are wearing a deserted look with cotton farmers showing no interest in selling their produce in Central government operated purchasing centres.
Sangareddy: Major market yards in Medak district are wearing a deserted look with cotton farmers showing no interest in selling their produce in Central government operated purchasing centres.
The Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has opened purchasing centres to buy cotton five days a week from Monday to Friday. Four days of holidays were declared in Siddipet Cotton Market for Deepavali. The market resumed its activities on Friday. Since the purchase centre was opened, just 4.5 quintals of cotton was purchased, according to Market Yard official Chakrapani.
At noon, two vehicles arrived with cotton. However, the farmers were forced to wait for more than an hour and a half as the person manning the weighing station was absent. Even the matching metre used for measuring the moisture content in the cotton is on the blink. Except the CCI official, nobody else could be seen ready to handle the situation if more vehicles had arrived.
Some farmers were lucky thanks to the presence of media persons, At last cotton which arrived by two vehicles were purchased and the minimum support of Rs 4,100 a quintal was paid.
On an average, the cost of cultivation, according to farmers, is Rs 15,000 an acre. The yield on acre is between 7 and 8 quintals. However, due to drought conditions in the district, the yield is only 4-5 quintals an acre. Many farmers are not getting above 3 quintals on an acre.
Farmers prefer to sell their produce to private mills despite millers illegally imposing cash-cutting charges amounting to 2-4 per cent a quintal of cotton. The farmer finally gets Rs 3600-3700 a quintal after all deductions.
The non-operation of CCI centres has in fact helped the private businessmen in exploiting the farmers with a lower rate per quintal being offered by them. In such conditions, farmers are hoping that the State government should announce an additional Rs 500 bonus on top of the support price declared by the Central government as was done in Maharashtra.
