Union Textile Min to look into farmer suicides in Telengana

Textile Minister Santosh Gangwar will meet Telengana government representatives and procurement officers in Hyderabad on October 2 to look into the matter of growing farmer suicides due to deficit rains and eliminate middlemen in cotton market.
Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya today met Gangwar along with representatives from the state to take steps to help farmers, especially cotton growers, in the state.
The representatives today put forward their demands before the textile minister including increased number of cotton purchase centres, more number of purchase staff, involvement of national agricultural cooperative federation in purchase mechanism and a joint meeting of all stakeholders -- farmers, ginning mill owners and traders.

Bandaru said the instances of suicide by farmers, especially cotton growers, is increasing on daily basis and it has become an alarming situation in the state.
He said measures are needed to be taken by the state as well as the Centre to give confidence to farmers so that they do not take the drastic step of committing suicide.
Cotton growers in the state are also trapped by middlemen which is causing more distress, he added.

"Suicides have become an alarming situation. To avoid these middlemen and to get more remunerative price for cotton, he (Gangwar)... Will go to Hyderabad on October 2, and have a meeting directly with all concerned officers and respective counterparts of state governments," said Dattatreya.

The cotton procurement season begins in October. Last cotton season, the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) had fixed a remunerative price of Rs 4,050 per quintal.
Dattatreya also said he has asked the Textile Minister to consider increasing the remunerative prices offered by CCI this cotton season.
CCI is expected to procure cotton directly from farmers but many middlemen have come up and they exploit farmers, he said.
Warangal, Adialabad, Karimnagar, Nalagonda, Nizamabad are the main cotton growing districts in Telangana facing farmer suicide problem.
During this kharif season, cotton grown area in the state has increased by 15 per cent.

About 1,132 farmers have committed suicide in the state during the last one year and 90 per cent of these are cotton growers.