Telangana urges Centre to ease cotton procurement norms
By yash chouhan 2025-11-18 11:10:29
Telangana agriculture minister urges Centre to ease cotton procurement norms.
Telangana Agriculture Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao held discussions on Sunday with officials of the Ministry of Textiles, urging them to take a favourable decision on the challenges facing ginning mills amid mounting pressure from farmers over the new cotton procurement norms.
The revised guidelines issued by the Ministry of Textiles — particularly those related to the L1 and L2 norms — have reportedly created difficulties for ginning mills, prompting them to announce a strike from 17th November. The Minister also appealed to the authorities to reinstate the procurement limit of 12 quintals per acre, instead of the newly imposed cap of 7 quintals.
According to officials, district-wise cotton yield data had been collected as advised by the Ministry of Textiles, and the government was prepared to furnish farmer-wise yield statistics if required.
Field-level data indicated that the average cotton yield stood at 11.74 quintals per acre, and a request had been submitted to revise the current norm of 7 quintals back to 12 quintals per acre.
Decisions taken by the Ministry of Textiles and the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) have so far resulted in the procurement of only 1.18 lakh tonnes of cotton from 67,000 farmers. The Minister warned that, at a time when procurement should have been gaining momentum, the planned strike by ginning mills and the cessation of purchases would be detrimental to farmers.
He noted that farmers had already endured significant losses due to excessive and unseasonal rainfall but were now beginning to recover, with improved sunshine helping to reduce moisture content in their produce.
