Declining Cotton Production and Procurement by CCI in Punjab, Haryana, and 10 Other States
2025-04-05 12:03:08
Cotton production and procurement by CCI is continuously declining in 12 states including Punjab, Haryana and 12 other states
Chandigarh: Cotton production and procurement by the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) is continuously declining in 12 states, including major North Indian states Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.
From 365 lakh bales (1 bale = 170 kg) in the 2019-20 season, production is expected to decline to 325 lakh bales in 2023-24 and provisionally to 294 lakh bales in the 2024-25 season by March 24, 2025. CCI's cotton procurement also witnessed a sharp decline, dropping from 124.61 lakh bales in 2019-20 to only 32.84 lakh bales in 2023-24, while the provisional figures for 2024-25 are expected to reach only 99.93 lakh bales by March 26, 2025.
According to Union Minister of State for Textiles Pabitra Margherita, the reason for CCI's inability to make some procurement is due to cotton prices often being higher than the minimum support price (MSP), as explained in the Rajya Sabha in a written reply to a question by Punjab MP Sandeep Kumar Pathak.
According to the minister, the country has produced 365 lakh bales in 2019-20, 352.48 lakh bales in 2020-21, 311.17 lakh bales in 2021-22, 336.60 lakh bales in 2022-23, 325.22 lakh bales in 2023-24 and 294.25 lakh bales in 2024-25 season up to 24th March 2025. Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan have produced 9.50 lakh bales, 26.50 lakh bales and 29 lakh bales respectively in 2019-20; while it was 10.23 lakh bales, 18.23 lakh bales and 32.07 lakh bales in 2020-21; 6.46 lakh bales, 13.16 lakh bales and 24.81 lakh bales in 2021-22; 4.44 lakh bales, 10.01 lakh bales and 27.74 lakh bales in 2022-23; 6.29 lakh bales, 15.09 lakh bales and 26.22 lakh bales in 2023-24; and 2.72 lakh bales, 12.44 lakh bales and 18.45 lakh bales in 2024-25 season till 24th March. With regard to procurement by CCI, 124.61 lakh bales were procured in 2019-20, 99.33 lakh bales in 2020-21 while no procurement was made in the years 2021-22 and 2022-23. 32.84 lakh bales were procured in 2023-24 while 99.93 lakh bales have been procured in 2024-25 season till 26th March. Specifically, 3.56 lakh bales, 6.22 lakh bales and 3.76 lakh bales were procured by CCI from Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, respectively, in 2019-20; 5.36 lakh bales, 10.57 lakh bales and 9.11 lakh bales in 2020-21; no procurement in 2021-22 and 2022-23; 0.38 lakh bales, 0.43 lakh bales and 0.52 lakh bales in 2023-24; and 0.02 lakh bales, 0.62 lakh bales and 0.50 lakh bales in 2024-25 season till March 26.
