The Hindu Business Line : Cotton Corpn, Nafed brace up to buy cotton in Gujarat

With a view to ensure that farmers got remunerative price for their bumper cotton crop in Gujarat this season, the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) and Nafed on Monday finalised their preparation to buy in bulk the commodity, if necessary, from the auspicious "Labh Pancham" (October 27), in 88 centres in the western State.

The Agriculture Minister, Mr Bhupendrasinh Chudasma, and his deputy, Mr Dilip Thakore, reviewed the preparations at a high-level meeting of their department and representatives of CCI and Nafed here on Monday.

Gujarat, which produces about 40 per cent of the country's cotton, has seen cotton cultivation this year in 24 lakh hectares. CCI is likely to buy cotton in 58 centres and Nafed in 30 centres, mainly in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, at the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 2,005 a quintal, official sources told Business Line.

Already, cotton prices are higher than MSP. For instance, CCI itself has bought 4,500 quintals at an average price of Rs 2,135 a quintal at Talaja, Mahuwa, Limbdi and Dhragandhra markets in the Saurashtra region recently. Today, the cotton price at the major markets of Manavader, Gondal, Jasdan and Botad, all in Saurashtra, was in the range of Rs 2,217 and Rs 2,275. The yield in Gujarat has increased to 725 kg a hectare, second only to Punjab's 887 kg.

CCI and Nafed are also set to open more purchase centres, if necessary.

The Union Textiles Minister, Mr Shankarsinh Vaghela, had said in Ahmedabad that despite calamities, India is set to witness a bumper cotton crop of 255 lakh bales this year. Gujarat alone is expected to produce about 100 lakh bales against last year's 85 lakh bales.

Exports up

Last year, India exported 25 lakh bales to China alone. Despite abolition of the quota system in the global textile market, India's exports have grown by 26 and 20 per cent, respectively, in the American and European markets.

Mr Vaghela had pointed out that India is expected to reduce its dependence on imported long staple cotton fibre from Pakistan as the yield in the country of this variety is likely to increase from four lakh bales to five lakh bales this year, particularly in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. India produced four lakh bales of long staple fibre against the requirement of eight lakh bales, the deficit being met by imports mainly from Pakistan.

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