Farmers in crisis from falling cotton prices in Andhra Pradesh
GUNTUR : Cotton farmers of the state are in trouble due to chaos in the procurement market. Despite the Centre's hike in the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for the current season, they are struggling to sell their stock.
Farmers allege that the move by the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) to radically change the procurement process through the newly launched Cotton Kisan App, without any training to stakeholders including CCI officials, marketing personnel and ginning mill employees, has further complicated the situation.
The price of cotton, which was over ₹12,000 per quintal during 2023-24, has now fallen to ₹6,000, a steep decline of 50 per cent. While the cost of cultivation has increased to ₹10,000 per quintal, the Center has given an MSP of ₹8,100. Farmers who were hoping for better profits due to favorable weather and good yields this season are facing a loss of around ₹ 6,000 per quintal compared to last year.
The CCI's experimental change in cotton procurement, which mandates untested cotton app, is pushing open market prices to an all-time low as private traders and middlemen are taking advantage of the disruption to buy stocks at extremely low prices.
With CCI's procurement system completely stalled, farmers in cotton-rich districts like Guntur, Palanadu, Prakasam, Kurnool, Bapatla, Ananthapuram and Nandayal are stuck in a vicious cycle of debt.
Many took huge loans for seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and labour, but found no buyers at the MSP. Unprecedented rains have also dampened farmers' hopes as stock has been affected due to moisture.
The Cotton Kisan app, designed to streamline procurement, has instead become a hindrance. Stakeholders have reported confusion over registration, bidding and payment protocols, and no training sessions have been conducted by the CCI. Ginning mills, critical for processing, are out of order, further disrupting supply chains. As a result, excess stocks of cotton have flooded unregulated markets, causing prices to fall further. What was touted as a digital leap has turned into a policy failure, with farmers suffering the brunt.
In fact, the CCI took more than two months to finalize the bids for the selection of ginning mills, while the farmers were in a state of panic. CPM leader Pasam Rama Rao alleged, "Enforce MSP through bulk procurement, compensate verifiable losses, train all stakeholders on cotton app and keep a strict vigil on private buyers. Until CCI corrects its negligence and operational failures, thousands of farmer families will remain on the brink of livelihood."
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