Minister for Agriculture Tummala Nageswara Rao at a meeting on cotton procurement this season in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit: By Arrangement
HYDERABAD
The State Government has decided to open 131 cotton procurement centres of the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) during 2026-27 cotton marketing season against 122 centres opened in 2025-26.
Minister for Agriculture Tummala Nageswara Rao on Tuesday reviewed the preparedness of cotton procurement this season with the officials of the CCI, agriculture and marketing departments. He asked the authorities to prevent any role, whatsoever, for the middlemen in the cotton procurement exercise since most of the farming community who raise the crop were small and marginal farmers and cultivate the crop as rain-fed.
The minister stated that cotton cultivation was estimated at about 46.33 lakh acres this year and the production was likely to be 25.85 lakh tonnes. The Centre had announced a minimum support price of ₹8,667 per quintal for long staple cotton varieties raised in Telangana along with some other States. The MSP was ₹557 per quintal higher compared to the last year.
Apart from the CCI procurement centres, it was also decided to notify 356 ginning mills in the State as cotton purchase centres. He suggested the authorities take steps to open all categories of ginning mills from L1 to L12 at one time or at least in a gap of 15-30 days. The cotton arrivals are expected from the second half of October.
Further, he asked the authorities to transfer the crop booking data to Kapas Kisan App through NIC and announce the average yield of cotton this season based on the seasonal conditions and also issue digital yield certificates to farmers who get higher yield than the average one through Agriculture Extension Officers.
Published – August 11, 2026 08:30 pm IST
