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Cotton Corporation gears up to expand operations in Maharashtra

With monopoly scheme gradually being diluted, the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has formulated a long-term strategy to actively participate in Maharashtra’s cotton economy. Arbind Gupta reports.

Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has decided to expand its operations in Maharashtra in order to enhance its participation in the state’s cotton economy. According to officials, the corporation will increase its purchase centres in the state from the existing 45 centres to 70 centres during the new cotton season (2003-04).

This move of the corporation has come in the wake of the state government’s changing approach towards the monopoly procurement scheme which is gradually losing its relevance in the changed trade order. It is to be noted that in the last couple of years, the state government has gone on to dilute the monopoly scheme by allowing ginners, textile mills and CCI to procure cotton from farmers in the state.

Talking to Express Textile, Mr Vishwa Nath, chairman and managing director, CCI, said, “With the monopoly scheme being diluted gradually, we have now decided to play a much bigger role in the state’s cotton economy. Maharashtra being one of the largest cotton growing states in the country assumes significance for the corporation which has been enhancing its scope in the liberal market place. In future, we will continue to explore opportunities to create a stronger domestic cotton base.”

The larger operational network will enable CCI to purchase a much higher volume of cotton from state farmers. According to sources, the corporation is expected to purchase more than 7-8 lakh bales of cotton in the new season as against around 1.75 lakh bales purchased during the current season. Trade sources have estimated a much higher crop of around 45 lakh bales for the new season as against around 31 lakh bales of production (actual) for the current season.

“The crop has so far progressed very satisfactorily and in the given condition, we can easily estimate a production of not less than 40 lakh bales. But we have to see how the crop shapes up during September which is very crucial in terms of pest attacks and other climatic vagaries,” said a Mumbai-based trader. The conditions at present are so favourable that if nothing goes wrong, the state is likely to see huge improvement in yield which in the current season was as low as 160-170 kg per hectare as against national average of 309 kg per hectares, added the trader.

Meanwhile, CCI has also taken up, in a very big way, integrated cotton farming in Maharashtra apart from Haryana and Andhra Pradesh, in the new cotton season. Under the integrated farming, the corporation has covered 3350 hectares of area in 37 villages of five districts in these three states. The entire exercise will be carried out in association with Bayer Corp Sciences, IFFCO, Haryana Agriculture university, CICR, Nagpur and PDJKV, Akola. In Maharashtra, at Nagpur and Buldana, the cotton so produced will be procured by ginning factories, while in other places, CCI will be the sole procuring body.

“We have realised the importance of integrated farming, even as the outcome in the current season was not so encouraging due to abnormal weather conditions. But this year, we are very optimistic about the results. Mills are still not very forthcoming. However, once they see the favourable results, there is no reason for them to wait and watch,” stated the CCI chairman.