Despite the government substantially hiking the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for cotton this year, many farmers in Punjab are facing delays in selling their produce to state owned Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) because the corporation is facing huge crunch of labour to carry out weighing and other activities. As a result the farmers are forced to sell their produce below MSP to private traders.
On visiting a mandi at Mansa district of Punjab, FE found large numbers of farmers waiting with their produce to be sold to the CCI. According tp farmers it takes them two-three days to complete the process of selling that starts from weighing to getting the payment from the CCI, while, in the case of private traders the selling process is completed within a day.
?I have been waiting for two days for weighing my produce, hopefully my turn would come later in the day,? said Hardeep Singh, from Jagaran village in the adjoining Bhatinda district who has brought three quintals of cotton to Mandi.
Sukhinder Singh, another farmer Dousandia village in Mansa district also complained that often they get less than MSP and due to delay in the weighing process they usually end up selling their produce to private traders. The government had announced a sharp increase upto 40% in MSP for cotton in September which would benefit around 4.5 million farmers mostly in Mahrashatra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. MSP for various grades of cotton was hiked in the range of Rs 2,000 per Rs 1,600 per quintal prevailing last year to Rs 2,800?Rs 2,500 per quintal in the current year.
This has been the highest increase of MSP for cotton, which has been rising at around 10-12% per annum for past several years. The government took the decision to hike MSP for providing relief to farmers facing mounting debt and there were several cases of suicides across the country.
According to farmers in Punjab?s cotton growing Malwa region, while MSP for cotton is Rs 2,750 per quintals, due to delay on the part of CCI, farmers prefer to sale to private trader at Rs 2,600 per quintal or even below. ?There is a clear connivance between private traders and CCI officials,? Harbhajan Singh, a cotton farmer from Mansa district said. However, several CCI officials at Mansa mandi maintained that they are facing huge shortage of labour for weighing and other activities. According to a CCI official, the state-owned procurement firm aims to buy five lakh bales from Punjab during this season.
Industry estimates indicate that during 2008-09, cotton production is expected to be 33 million bales (one bale is equal to 170 kg) and the yield has increased from 300 kg per hectare five years ago to 560 kg last year due to introduction of Bt cotton seeds? a genetically modified variety developed by the US biotechnology company Monsanto Co. The domestic consumption is more than 22 million bales.
According to 1st advance estimate 2008-9 released by ministry of agriculture, the cotton production is expected to be 23.91 mt against 25.81 mt achieved last year.