Cotton Federation chief seeks Agriculture Deptt staff

Staff Reporter :

Following the politically backed demand to start more number of cotton procurement centres, Maharashtra State Co-operative Cotton Growers’ Marketing Federation (Cotton Federation) has urged State Government to provide Agriculture Department staff on deputation to enable the federation to start new centres. Anant Deshmukh, Chairman of Cotton Federation, has written a letter to Dadaji Bhuse, Agriculture Minister, in this regard. State Government implemented Monopoly Cotton Procurement Scheme (MCPS) in Maharashtra since 1972. Then, there were 400-450 cotton procurement centres.

MCPS was implemented till 2001-02. From 2002-03, State Government approved cotton procurement through Cotton Corporation of India (CCI), co-operative mills and private traders. In 2019-20, Cotton Federation was appointed as CCI’s sub-agent. As per the Central Government’s minimum support price, Cotton Federation is procuring cotton from farmers at 74 centres and 127 ginning and pressing factories. As far as staff position is concerned, in 2004, Cotton Federation had floated voluntary retirement scheme, which many staffers applied for.

Now, in May 2020, only 141 regular staff is available with Cotton Federation. Of these, 67 are graders, Deshmukh has stated in the letter. So far, Cotton Federation has procured 56.91 lakh quintal of cotton and 30-35 per cent of cotton yield is still stocked with the farmers. As the rate of lint in the international market has dipped, the price of cotton in market has come down to Rs 4,000 per quintal to Rs 4,500 per quintal. Cotton Federation is procuring cotton at Rs 5,500 per quintal from farmers. Owing to this gap, farmers are preferring to sell cotton to Cotton Federation. However, the Federation is finding it difficult to expedite cotton procurement due to shortage of staff. Hence, Deshmukh has urged the Government to provide Agriculture Department staff on deputation to Cotton Federation.

Cotton growers stage sit-in at Parseoni

Parseoni Correspondent :

Several cotton growers staged a sit-in at Parseoni Tehsil Office on Wednesday, to press for the demand of expediting cotton procurement at the centres started by Cotton Federation. The agitators demanded that, cotton from farmers of Parseoni, Ramtek and Mouda tehsils of Nagpur district should be procured at the earliest. They also demanded increasing number of cotton procurement centres, appointing graders on contractual basis, verification of names of farmers in the list at Government ginning mills, allowing Cotton Federation to procure cotton in private ginning mills.

Varunkumar Sahare, Tehsildar; Kailas Allewar, Naib Tehsildar, visited the site of agitation. After discussion, it was decided that, an agreement would be signed with a private ginning mills at Karambhad, Patgowari and Gumthala and cotton procurement would be started soon. Besides, procurement at Parseoni ginning mill will continue.

Agriculture Assistants will be trained to work as optional graders. The officials also assured to verify the farmers’ list. Udaysingh Yadav, General Secretary of Nagpur District Rural Congress Committee, led the agitation. Harshwardhan Nikose, former Chairman of Social Welfare Committee of Zilla Parishad; Umesh Thakre, Chairman of Ramtek Panchayat Samiti; Komalchand Raut, Nikesh Bhoyar, Madhukar Bele, Pramod Kakde, Nandu Ukey, Vaibhav Khobragade, Ajju Pathan, Shubham Raut, and others were prominently present on the occasion.