About 41 lakh bales of cotton have been procured at the minimum support price (MSP) by state-run Cotton Corporation of India (CCI). CCI commenced the procurement operation at MSP from October 2014 to protect farmers from sharp decline in domestic prices in view of expected higher production.
The maximum procurement so far this year was from states of from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, followed by Maharashtra. About 27 lakh bales of cotton have been purchased from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, 7 lakh bales from Maharashtra, 2.20 lakh bales from Gujarat and around 2 lakh bales from Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.
Meanwhile, the government’s Cotton Advisory Board has pegged the country’s total cotton production at over 40 million bales in 2014-15 marketing year as against 39.8 million bales in 2013-14.