Telangana urges to open 150 CCI centres to help farmers sell their produce

The Telangana state government has urged the Centre to open 150 business centres of Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) to enable farmers sell their produce as the extent of cotton sown area increasing two fold this year. During 2015-2016 the CCI had opened only 84 centres, this year the farmers would be requiring at least 150 centres to sell their produce.

It has also sought relaxation in CCI purchasing norms as cotton gets discoloured to some extent due to heavy rains in October and November.

During his meeting with Union textiles minister Smriti Irani, Telangana minister for irrigation and marketing T Harish Rao suggested that the CCI cotton collection centres should be open on all six working days during the season with full-fledged staff. He said that for easy transactions and online payment of sale proceeds to the farmers, the CCI could use the payment gateway of e-NAM. This will also prevent delay in payments to growers.

On quality and technical issues, Rao suggested that the assaying service of National Collateral Management Services Limited (NCML), with which Telangana government had a tie up for assaying services in eight Agriculture Marketing Committees, could be examined. He said the fees for such assaying services can be met by the CCI under minimum support price (MSP) operations.

He said that quality testing laboratories for bales could be established at four centres in the Sate at Adilabad, Warangal, Hyderabad (Shamshabad) and Siddipet to facilitate exports

Rao also sought supply of hand machines to farmers on subsidy basis, as it would help them pick cotton and it would not only address cotton contamination but also tackle the problem of labour shortage. He also sought supply of bags to pick the cotton.