For the beleaguered cotton growers across the country, the ensuing harvest season will be a repeat of last year’s, with prices hovering below the minimum support price (MSP) levels.

The early arrivals have commenced in major cotton producing States such as Telangana, Punjab and Gujarat among others and are expected to pick up post-Dasara.

CCI centres in Telangana As the harvest pressure pulls down the prices amidst huge carry forward stocks in absence of any demand from millers, the Cotton Corporation of India is expected to start the purchase centres next week in Telangana to ensure the minimum support price to the farmers.

“We are opening 83 purchase centres in the eight districts of Telangana from October 13,” CCI Chairman and Managing Director BK Mishra told BusinessLine . Key cotton growing regions of Warangal, Karimnagar, Adilabad and Nizamabad would have about 12 centres each.

The arrivals have begun early this month in Telangana, one of the top cotton-growing States in the country with over 17 lakh hectares of acreage.

Though purchases happened for 3-4 days in Warangal, the market had suspended operations after farmers protested against the low prices.

Farmers protest “They were buying at ₹1,500-2,500 a quintal, citing poor quality of the produce. But the moment the produce changed hands, they sold it at higher prices to the mills,” a farmer, who didn’t want to be quoted, said.

The protests led to the suspension of purchases for the last one week.

The farmers are demanding a price of ₹5,000/quintal.

Farmers in Telangana are even taking their produce to major markets such as Raichur in neighbouring Karnataka.

While the Centre has announced a MSP of ₹4,100 per quintal for cotton with a moisture content of 8 per cent, the prices in Karnataka are hovering between ₹3,700 and ₹3,800.

Cottonseed prices “The high price of cottonseed at between ₹2,000 and ₹2,100 a quintal is lending some support to the cotton prices currently. With the expected pick-up in arrivals in the coming weeks, prices could come under further pressure,” said Ramanuja Das Boob, a ginner in Raichur.

A month ago, the cottonseed prices were ruling at ₹2,400-2,500 a quintal.

Cottonseed cake is used an animal feed.

Boob said though the poor monsoon impacted the cotton acreage in South India, the recent bout of rains are expected to aid the standing crop in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

CCI campaigns Meanwhile, the CCI has launched a publicity campaign in Telangana by publishing pamphlets in Telugu giving a list of the centres.

It also contains dos-and-don’ts in handling the produce. It asked farmers to ensure a moisture level not exceeding 8 per cent to get a price of ₹4,100 a quintal.

For each percentage point of additional moisture, the price would come down by ₹41 a quintal. It said it won’t buy cotton with moisture levels beyond 12 per cent.

Last year, CCI had purchased 87 lakh bales of cotton worth about ₹17,000 crore from farmers under the minimum support price scheme.

Output seen down Cotton output in the 2015-16 season starting October is expected to decline to around 340-350 lakh bales against 395 lakh bales last year as the acreage under the fibre crop has dropped by eight per cent to 116.9 lakh hectares from last year’s 126.55 lakh hectares.

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