Balachandran, a cotton farmer from Thuraiyur taluk, grew cotton on 10 acres. They got an average price of ₹ 7,000 per quintal (100 kg), compared to ₹ 12,000 per quintal last year.
In several villages in Tiruvarur district, farmers are selling at ₹4,000 to ₹4,500 per quintal to local traders, though the minimum support price (MSP) is around ₹6,300 per quintal.
Cotton farmers in Tamil Nadu, especially in the delta regions, are harvesting the summer crop and are getting prices nearly 50% lower than last year, and in many places even less than the MSP.
A Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) official in Coimbatore told The Hindu that its employees are present in the delta districts and CCI is ready to buy cotton at MSP if prices fall below this.
“Only medium or large scale farmers can take the produce to regulated markets where prices are higher than the MSP. Small farmers sell to local traders who charge less than the MSP citing quality issues,'' says Manohar Sambandam, a farmer in Tiruvarur district.
They say there is a difference of at least ₹10 per kg between the price of cotton sold to local traders and the price received in regulated markets. They allege that there is a lot of scope for improvement in post-harvest practices to improve the quality of cotton and get better prices, but traders are not even giving fair prices to the farmers.
“Last year, though the prices were ₹6,500 to ₹7,000 per quintal at the beginning of the harvesting months, it shot up to ₹12,000. Many farmers increased the area under cotton in the hope of higher prices this year as well. Now, with prices falling by over 50%, they are not happy,'' says Ravichandran, a cotton farmer from Nannilam.
Mr Ravichandran says the state government should recommend the central government to advance the implementation of the revised MSP from June-July in Tamil Nadu, though it is from October 1 across the country.
Mr. Sambandam says change is needed at the policy-level. “The measures are needed to ensure stable prices for cotton farmers. Forming an FPO is an option,'' he says.
Farmers also say that they need supply of quality seeds to get better yield.
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