Cotton Procurement Extended Till Feb End: Thummala

Telangana Agriculture and Marketing Minister Thummala Nageswara Rao today announced that, at the request of the State government, the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) had agreed to extend cotton procurement till the end of February to avoid inconvenience to cotton farmers in Telangana.

The minister said that both the Union government and CCI recognised the need to prolong the procurement period, prioritising farmers' interests, and responded favourably to the request.

"As the commencement of cotton cultivation in Telangana was delayed this season, the arrival of produce in the markets was also postponed. In view of this, I communicated with the Central authorities, seeking an extension of the procurement deadline. I also urged Union ministers Kishan Reddy and Bandi Sanjay to bring the matter to the attention of the concerned officials and take necessary measures to safeguard farmers' interests," he said.

The minister claimed that cotton cultivation this year covered 45.32 lakh acres in Telangana, with an estimated production of 28.29 lakh metric tons.

As per reports, so far the CCI has procured 16.15 lakh metric tons of cotton worth Rs 12,823 crore from 8,80,053 farmers. In addition, 2.24 lakh metric tons of substandard cotton have been procured through the market. However, marketing officials estimate that around 9.99 lakh metric tons of cotton is still with farmers across the State.