Maharashtra Govt Procures 50% Of Cotton In State

Market News

Maharashtra Govt Procures 50% Of Cotton In State

More procurement centres, gin and press units helped Maharashtra clock a five-year high in terms of government procurement of cotton. With over 92% payment cleared for farmers, the government is confident of finishing the process within the next few days. Maharashtra reported an all-time high 44 lakh hectares of cotton acreage and production of 407 lakh quintals (80 lakh bales each of 170 kg) of cotton. Since the start of the season, the fibre crop has been trading well below its government declared minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 5,500 per quintal. Both the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) and the Maharashtra State Cooperative Cotton Marketing Federation had waded into procurement of cotton to help farmers. Till March 2020 - that is before the lockdown was announced - both the CCI and the Federation had effected payment of 145.06 lakh quintals of cotton. Anoop Kumar, principal secretary of animal husbandry, dairy development fisheries and marketing, said the impasse created by the lockdown was resolved by talking to individual district collectors to restart the process of government procurement. Thus, the number of both procurement centres as well as ginning and pressing units were increased substantially. The federation, which had 74 procurement centres and 127 pressing and ginning units prior to the lockdown, increased it to 89 and 170 respectively. Similarly CCI, which was operating 84 procurement centres and 181 processing units, increased it to 85 and 231 respectively. Data shared by the state marketing department shows that till date both the government agencies have effected procurement of 200 lakh quintals of kapas (unginned seed cotton) while private traders have procured 198 lakh quintals. Thus, only a small fraction of 407 lakh quintals still remain with the farmers which the Federation and CCI say will be procured in the next few days. "In areas where the procurement centres did not have water-proof structures to protect the cotton, the APMCs had erected sheds," he said. Till date, of the Rs 10,463.25 crore to be paid to farmers in way of MSP, Rs 9946.46 crore has been paid. "The remaining amount will be cleared soon," he said.