The Shetkari Sanghatana has urged the Maharashtra government to direct Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) to purchase not only fair average quality (FAQ) quality cotton but also grade 2 and grade 3 quality of cotton from farmers.
The government of Maharashtra has allowed cotton procurement to resume across the state, with a condition that all guidelines regarding Covid-19 must be followed.
Maharashtra State Co-operative Cotton Growers’ Marketing Federation (or, Cotton Federation), will resume FAQ cotton procurement from Tuesday.
In a letter written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, Anil Ghanwat, president, Shetkari Sanghatana, has said that instead of restricting the number of vehicles to just 20 per day, more vehicles should be allowed.
With the spread of Covid-19, CCI had stopped MSP purchase and farmers have been asked to register from April 19, he said. MSP purchase is expected to commence in the state in the next two to three days, he said.
Ghanwat said that farmers barely have 20% FAQ quality cotton and 80% of the cotton is is non-FAQ.
If the government does not purchase this cotton, farmers will be forced to sell it to traders at low rates, he said.
Ginning units are not keen on buying cotton since most of the workers have left for their villages and they do not have the capital to buy cotton and other processing units are also shut, he pointed out.
Lakhs of tonnes of cotton is still unsold in the state with over 25 lakh tonne in Vidarbha alone, he said.
The number of purchase centres has been reduced, he added.
With the summer approaching and rising temperatures, it will be risky for farmers to keep unsold stocks home as it could lead to accidents, Ghanwat said.
He suggested that the government should buy the cotton at ginning units that could process the cotton for Rs 973 per bale so that the units will also not be financially burdened.