Cotton farmers fear crop crisis

Cotton farmers in the state are worried about a major crisis due to crop failure in the current season. While lack of rains and power failure had brought down the yield, the increase in input cost made them to invest more. The fall in the yield is likely to hit them hard in addition to the low minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 3,300 a quintal.

Thought the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has opened purchase centres, it is yet to procure a single quintal. On the other hand, farmers are selling the yield to private traders at Rs 3,700 a quintal while it was Rs 9,100 in the last season that made several farmers shift to cotton in the current season. However, the bad weather had brought down the yield while the absence of export orders keep the prices at low.

In Guntur distrist, farmers have cultivated the crop in over 1.64 hectares, mostly in the Palnadu region. However, the weather had watered down their expectations with the yield coming down by 3 to 4 quintals a hector. Similarly, in Krishna district farmers have cultivated in over 56,000 ha in the upland areas, while those in Prakasam district have cultivated the crop in over 52,000 ha.

In addition to the drought conditions, farmers were badly hit by the Telangana strike, which had reflected in power cuts. They had to engage diesel engines to supply water to the crop, an addition expenditure on them.

“The investment in the crop had increased in this season due to weather and power failures, besides the input cost. The prices in the market too are discouraging,” said a cotton grower from Macherla in Guntur district.

Andhra Pradesh Cotton Association president, G Punnaiah Chowdary, said they had expected over 6 million bales (each bale is 175 kg) for the current season, while it is now estimated to be around 4.5 million to 5 million bales.

The Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangham, a farmers’ wing of the Communist Party of India, had asked the government to make the CCI to purchase cotton from the farmers at Rs 6,000 a quintal as against the MSP of Rs 3,300. It had also asked the government to pay Rs 15,000 compensation to each farmers per acre.

Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Textiles, Panabaka Lakshmi, said the CCI would open over 275 purchase centres across the country, of which 75 would come up in Andhra Pradesh. She said farmers were getting Rs 3,800 a quintal from private buyers and the CCI’s intervention was not needed now. Even the CCI is also not in a hurry to enter the market and offer higher prices. The CCI is waiting for farmers to bring their product at Rs 3,300 a qunital, while the farmers are running around private buyers to pay at least Rs 3,700 a quintal. No farmer is willing to go to the CCI purchase centre to lose Rs 400 a quintal at this stage.