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.
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Mohta Ginning and Pressing Factory in Wardha is going slow on procurement |
We have publicized these rules through newspapers, TV and
handbills, but farmers do not understand them."
msp for medium-staple is Rs 2,500 per 100 kg.
Farmers dismiss the quality argument. Anil Pachpore of Datala village in Buldhana district, said, "The cotton in our village has staple length
between 29.25 mm and 32 mm. Still we are getting Rs 2,800 per 100 kg. No grading is taking place here. The price is fixed."
Market play
Traders and spinning mill owners say even the price at which they are buying is unrealistic. Since the announcement of cotton
msps--up to 47 per cent higher than the previous year's--the cotton price in the international market has crashed by Rs
500 per 100 kg.
"Taking into account the worldwide recession, the
msp is unrealistic," said Pramod Shende, the deputy speaker of
the Maharashtra Assembly and chairperson of the cooperative spinning mill Indira Sahakari Soot Girni in Wardha. Asked why then the mill
procured cotton at rates from Rs 2,860 to Rs 3,011 per 100 kg, Shende said it would result in a loss for the mill. Yogendra Fattepuria, cotton
trader and owner of the Paras Cotton Ginning and Pressing Factory in Wardha, said he could not make purchases at all this year because of the
high price. "During the last season the price of bales (roughly 170 kg and 10 times of raw cotton's) had gone up from Rs 19,000 to Rs 28,000
between January and May, while
msp was Rs 2,030. This year
msp is Rs 3,000, but
the price of bales has dropped to Rs 22,500 in Maharashtra," he said.
On the condition of anonymity, a procurement officer at Wardha said
cci could lose Rs 1,500 crore.
Vijay Jawandhia, an activist belonging to the Shetkari Sanghatana, a farmers' movement in Maharashtra, said mill owners were wrongly linking
their problems to
msp. "The mills have been reaping the benefits of the low cotton price in the international market
sustained by US subsidies, but they grudge the little protection our farmers have in the form of
msp," said
Jawandhia. He demanded the government provide an export subsidy on cotton to ease the pressure on farmers and mills.
Farmers insist the support price is meant to protect farmers from market ups and downs. "This year the support price should have been Rs 4,000
in view of the repeated agricultural disasters," said Shrirang Gholve of Dorli village in Yavatmal. Farmers are in financial distress owing to the
soybean pest attack and drought followed by
lalya, a disease that turns cotton leaves rust-coloured and brings down the yield sharply.
"Due to
lalya farmers who used to reap about 1.5 tonnes of cotton per hectare (ha) in this area are harvesting half a tonne. There are
going to be more loans and suicides," said Gholve.
Activists allege the government is using every trick in the book to favour traders over farmers. Chandrakant Wankhede, a Nagpur-based writer
and veteran activist of Shetkari Sanghatana, said, "Political pressure forced the government to raise the price, but now it is delaying procurement
and putting absurd conditions like buying cotton of only a certain grade and only allowing buyers who own ginning-pressing units."
Gajanan Amdabadkar, a Washim-based activist of the group, said, "The local market has turned unfavourable for farmers because under
industry pressure the import duty on cotton was scrapped. If the duty is reimposed, the local prices could go up."
Inconsistent grading
Whatever the market condition, the farming community has lost faith in the grading mechanism.
At Yavatmal, farmers point out that the test of
micronear quality, which beat down prices, was not carried out in the presence of farmers. "We don't know when the tests were carried out," said
Gade Patil. "We were just told the results."
Hirani denied the allegation, saying, "There are labs in Nagpur and Akola where samples are tested for micronear quality every week." He said
the micronear quality is decided zone-wise on the basis of randomly selected samples because testing all samples would be too costly and
time-consuming. "
nafed will check every bale before taking possession, and low-quality bales would be rejected.
Officials responsible will lose their jobs," Hirani said.
If quality checks are so rigorous, ask farmers, how is it that those with poor quality cotton got the maximum
msp at
Pandharkawda? Gade Patil, who plans to file a writ petition on the issue of
msp, said, "We demand that grading
mechanisms be made transparent. The high
msp had raised farmers' hopes, but the grading system has made a
hoax out of it."
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