Minister for Agriculture Tummala Nageswara Rao. File
With the cotton-growing farmers across the State growing restive over the restrictions, such as maximum moisture content of 12% and procurement of only 7 quintals of cotton per acre imposed by the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) on disposal of their produce at the minimum support price, the State government has appealed CCI for lifting the curbs.
Minister for Agriculture Tummala Nageswara Rao along with Director of Agriculture B. Gopi spoke to Chairman and Managing Director of the CCI Lalit Kumar Gupta over phone on Saturday and brought several issues being faced by cotton farmers, including the restrictions on procurement, to his notice.
Even the access to Kapas Kisan App is being allowed only at 10 p.m. every day, the minister pointed out and requested the CCI CMD to make it accessible to the farming community round-the-clock to register their details for sale of their produce. Further, the Minister asked the CCI chief to instruct all ginning mills in the L1, L2 and L3 categories and revise the fair average quality norms to allow the moisture content up to 20%, keeping in view the prolonged rainy season this year.
Mr. Nageswara Rao further requested the CCI chief to procure 12 quintals of cotton per acre, instead of just 7 quintals, as the average yield in Telangana is 11.74 quintals per acre, assessed and declared after the cotton picking experiments conducted district-wise. He brought to the CCI chief’s notice that the State government had already taken the matter to the notice of the Centre and said Secretary (Agriculture) K. Surendra Mohan would take up the matter with the Central authorities, if need be.
According to the Agriculture Department authorities, cotton was raised in 47.84 lakh acres during the kharif season and the production was estimated to be about 30 lakh tonnes.
On the urea buffer stock in the State, the Minister stated that about 1.5 lakh tonnes was available, and another 2 lakh tonnes of the fertilizer is expected to arrive into the State this month.
Published – November 09, 2025 09:21 am IST
