Agriculture and Marketing Minister Thummala Nageshwara Rao on Monday appealed to the Cotton Corporation of India’s Chief Managing Director to continue cotton procurements.
Thummala, in a statement, said that the state government has estimated that in Kharif 2023, Telangana will cultivate cotton on 44.92 lakh acres and produce 25.02 lakh tonnes of cotton.
Accordingly, the Cotton Corporation of India, in collaboration with the State Government, set up 285 purchasing centres and procured 12.31 lakh tonnes of cotton from around 5,36,292 farmers for Rs 8,569.13 crore. Another 4.97 lakh tonnes was procured by private traders.
However, in some districts, cotton is still in its third harvest stage, and in some areas, the combined quantity of first and second harvest cotton is estimated to be around 71 lakh quintals, he said.
Remembering the fact that the demand for cotton has increased in the world market in the last fortnight, Thummala requested the Cotton Corporation of India to continue its purchases. If CCI withdraws from procurement, there is a risk of prices going down in the market, which is not a welcome development for the state government and cotton farmers.
Thummala appealed to the CCI to purchase cotton after fixing prices as per its norms.