Not making the grade

Flawed grading prevents Vidarbha cotton farmers from getting the highest-ever support price

On December 4, some 200 farmers arrived at the cotton procurement centre in Yavatmal tehsil of Maharashtra, with about 60 tonnes of cotton loaded in carts and tractor trolleys. They demanded the minimum support price (msp) of Rs 3,000 per 100 kg promised by the Centre.

This sent the employees of the Maharashtra Cotton Federation, the nodal body for procuring cotton in the state, in a tizzy. While farmers said their cotton had the average fibre length, also called staple length, of 28 mm required to qualify for the rate of Rs 3,000 per 100 kg, the federation employees argued that the micronear quality of the cotton, indicating strength, fell short of the standard. After a heated debate, one trolley-load of cotton was procured at Rs 3,000.The federation promised to send samples of the remaining cotton to Nagpur for tests.

Suryakant Gade Patil, the president of the state marketing board called the Agriculture Produce Market Committee in Yavatmal tehsil, who led the farmers, alleged the procurement centre in Pandharkawda tehsil of Yavatmal district was paying farmers Rs 3,000 per 100 kg without quality check, while elsewhere in the state farmers were getting a lower rate for good quality cotton. One of the three farmers of Yavatmal tehsil who had sold their cotton at Pandharkawda for Rs 3,000 per 100 kg, Sheshrao Pawar admitted, "The land in our village Bothbodan is inferior and our cotton is also low quality."

The expectancy created by the record msp of Rs 3,000 died down as soon as procurement by the Maharashtra Cotton Federation and the Cotton Corporation of India (cci), the central procuring agency, started on November 1, a month later than usual. Farmers at all centres in the state, except in Pandharkawda, are not getting more than Rs 2,850 per 100 kg. In many parts of Maharashtra's cotton belt Vidarbha, infamous for suicides, procurement was repeatedly suspended due to cloudy weather, running up farmers' transport cost. The local media reported that many farmers were selling in panic at reduced prices because of the closures.

"Last year when we sold our cotton the price was barely Rs 2,400 per 100 kg. It rose to Rs 3,500 after farmers had sold out. This year we hoped for a better deal, but now they are not even paying msp," said farmer Madhukar Jhunge of Nimgaon village in Wardha district, whose 900 kg of cotton was priced at Rs 2,850 per 100 kg.

By November 24, about 223.1 million kg of cotton had been procured in Maharashtra, according to the Cotton Federation. Private traders had bought 77.4 million kg, while the federation, on behalf of agri-cooperative major nafed, had purchased 34.1 million kg. cci had bought 111.8 million kg.

Maximum confusion
While private buyers blame the reduced price on the international slump in demand for cotton, officials of government agencies say it is because of the low quality of cotton. At the state marketing board in Wardha, grader S U Charjan said, "In most places we are receiving cotton of up to 28 mm staple length, hence the price." Charjan grades cotton for the Cotton Federation. A cci procurer, who refused to be named, agreed.

In Nagpur, Cotton Federation president M P Hirani said, "The maximum msp of Rs 3,000 is conditional to a 28.5 staple length, micronear level of 35 and moisture content of 8 per cent or less.