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G. Gurumurthy

The methodical practices followed by Tibet's refugees and their ability to link farm production and marketing through village-level cooperative chains has drawn the attention of a cotton ginner in Coimbatore, who has engaged these farmers in contract cotton farming.

COIMBATORE, April 14

FOR the 4,000 refugee farmers from Ustang province in Tibet, who took flight from their homeland in the 1960s at the height of their struggle against the Chinese, life in a foreign country was no mean challenge.

But when a section of them were resettled in Karnataka's Gurupura settlement in Hunsur taluk, the Tibetan refugees already knew how to convert this challenge into an opportunity. Today, they have grown from being mere refugees into a full-fledged farming community.

Between 1972, when these Tibetan refugees were first resettled in five Karnataka settlements and given lands for tilling, and 2000, the Tibetan refugees have grown in stature. Their regular maize crops helped them establish an identity as masters of organised farming.

Their methodical farm practices and ability to link farm production and marketing through village-level cooperative chains has drawn the attention of an enterprising cotton ginner in rural Pollachi taluk in Coimbatore. He has engaged these refugee farmers of Gurupura in contract cotton farming.

The Pollachi ginner roped the Tibetan farmers into cotton cultivation through cooperative effort two cotton seasons earlier.

The venture has proved so successful that the Appachi Cotton Company, the private ginning house from Pollachi, and the Tibetan Rabgayling Cooperative Society Ltd (TRGCSL), have expanded their contract farming arrangement.

It has expanded from 160 acres two years ago to 600 acres now. Encouraged by the contract cultivation of cotton over the last two seasons, both the ginner and the TRGCSL have decided to take up for the first time cultivation of MCU-5, the much-in-demand medium/long staple cotton variety on a 34-acre plot. This will supplement the cultivation of the extra long staple DCH-32 cotton variety, which the Tibetan cooperative farmers have cultivated for the past two years.

Appachi Cotton enters into an annual written contract with the members of the TRGCSL. This gives the former the first right in buying the cotton from the society farmers at the prevailing market prices.

In the event when both the parties are unable to agree on a price, the TRGCSL farmers call for open tenders to sell the cotton. Again, when the next lot of cotton comes in for sale, Appachi Cotton has the right to bid first.

"This system offers some amount of security for TRGCSL farmers on the marketability of their cotton produce. We, in turn, are assured of the homogeneity and purity of the cotton cultivated," said Mr Mani Chinnasamy, Managing Partner of Appachi Cotton Company.

Appachi Cotton specialises in trading, including export, of long/extra-long staple cotton varieties. It procures cotton from the farms and markets of Madhya Pradesh and Punjab. It was attracted to the Tibetan refugee-farmers networking skills under the local-level cooperative leadership in their refugee settlements (Beylakkuppe, Kollegal and Mundgod, besides Gurupura) that controls 10,000 acres of farming.

The TRGCSL farmers own 14 tractors and tillers and a range of farm equipment, in addition to having farmer information centres at the village level.

The Tibetan farmers' leader and Secretary of TRGCSL, Mr Losang Sherap, who was here to collect MCU-5 seeds for the next sowing season, told Business Line that his society's tie-up with Appachi Cotton had enabled the Gurupura cotton farmers receive technical expertise for raising contamination-free cotton.

The latter, in addition to the supply of seeds and fertilisers, holds out the scope for marketing. According to Mr Sherap, TRGCSL members shifted to cotton to partially escape the elephant menace to their maize crop.

Besides, they wanted to cash in on the ready liquidity offered by the cotton crop. Having tasted success in cotton, the TRGCSL members, Mr Sherap said, wanted to expand the land under cotton up to 1,000 acres next year.

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