Faridkot farmers selling cotton below MSP ›

Since the Cotton Corporation of India has not yet started procurement, private traders are quoting the rates they want. KULBIR MATTA, Faridkot mandi officer

FARIDKOT:COTTON farmers in Kotkapura, also known as the city of white gold, are worried as they are not getting the expected price of their produce. In fact, private traders are offering Rs 4,200 per quintal that is below the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 4,220 per quintal.

The reason: the central government-run procurement agency — Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) — has not started buying. Farmers also attribute the delay to the fact that the CCI has no processing unit for the crop it buys in the region.

“We worked hard to ensure that our crop was saved from whitefly. Now, the government is intent on running us by the delay in procurement. Private traders are buying from us at Rs 4,200 per quintal. We should get at least Rs 5,000 per quintal,” said a farmer, Manhoman Singh of Kotkapura, who has grown cotton on 5 acres.

He added that farmers preferred cotton to paddy as in that crop, payment was usually delayed. Now, with cotton not selling at the required price, we are in trouble.

The government’s apathy to buy the produce comes at a time when the yield of the crop in the district has been good, farmers claim. Jasvir Singh, a farmer from Kot Sukhian in Kotkapura, said, “The government is exploiting us. I grew cotton on 8 acres and got an yield of four quintal per acre in the first time (the crop is usually plucked three times with a minimum gap of 20 days), but did not even get the MSP.”