Cotton procurement at MSP extended by 15 days

Nagpur: Govt procurement of cotton at the minimum support price (MSP) has been extended by another 15 days in an effort to shield farmers from a price crash following news of the likely impact of Indo-US trade deal. The order comes a day after the earlier deadline of February 27 ended. The move also follows a letter written by CM Devendra Fadnavis to the Union textiles minister Giriraj Singh, seeking an extension of the procurement window to save farmers from losses.However, the traders and farmers TOI contacted said the 15-day extension may not be enough, considering the quantity of unsold crop. Govt procurement should at least continue until April 30, they said.
Cotton Corporation of India (CCI), the govt agency engaged in procurement, ended cotton buying on February 27, as per earlier schedule. However, on Saturday it was decided to continue cotton procurement for another fortnight, CCI chairman Lalit Kumar Gupta confirmed to TOI. The procurement centres will remain open from Monday to Friday, during the 15-day period said a source.As much as 25% of the cotton crop, largely in Vidarbha, is reported to be unsold. Even before the finalisation of the deal, news of India allowing duty-free imports of extra-long staple cotton from the US brought prices in open markets down. As against the MSP of Rs8,110 a quintal for the best grade, prices came down to Rs7,500, said market sources. Ending MSP procurement at this juncture would have left farmers exposed to market vagaries, said traders.The subsequent picking, which is usually of lower grade, is not even fetching Rs6,000 a quintal. At the CCI centre, even such cotton can get Rs7,500 according to its quality norms, said traders.Meanwhile, according to CCI website, it purchased 491 lakh quintals of cotton worth over Rs3,900cr in the entire country till Feb 20. The CCI has bought as much as 113 lakh quintals, paying Rs9,020 crore, till Feb 20 in Maharashtra.