Cotton farmers get govt aid

GANDHINAGAR, June 2: In a bid to provide remunerative prices to cotton growers of the State, the Government has purchased from them over ...

GANDHINAGAR, June 2: In a bid to provide remunerative prices to cotton growers of the State, the Government has purchased from them over 2.48 lakh of cotton bales in the last three months. This will entail an additional burden of Rs 30 crore on the State exchequer.

The government purchased the cotton bales through its nodal agency Gujarat Cotton Federation GUJCOT under its support price scheme, helping about 20 lakh cotton growers reap the benefits of a whopping Rs 110 crore.

At his weekly Cabinet press briefing, Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel said it was for the first time that the State Government had formulated the support price scheme for farmers growing short and long staple cotton, which otherwise is a Central subject.

Minister for Small and Medium Irrigation Nitin Patel said a bumper crop of 46 lakh cotton bales was recorded this year in the State. The prices of cotton had nosedived due to the unprecedented glut of the cash crop in the State and also falling prices in the international market. This compelled the government to announce the support price scheme following representations by farmers8217; organisations and the GUJCOT.

Nitin Patel, who was holding the Agriculture portfolio when the scheme had been formulated in March last, said GUJCOT had purchased the short stapple cotton from farmers at Rs 370 per 20 kgs as against the support price fixed by the Centre at Rs 275, while the long stapple cotton was purchased at Rs 430 per 20 kgs as against the Centre8217;s support price of Rs 430.

Responding to a query, the minister said the State farmers could export only 1,300 cotton bales as against the Centre8217;s approval of exporting 55,000 cotton bales. This happened due to the falling prices of cotton in the international market.

Patel said the Centre proposed to undertake a scheme to improve the quality of the cotton crop in Gujarat so as to enable farmers to compete in the international market. The Centre may ask the Cotton Corporation of India CCI to adopt over 500 villages for this and also provide cash subsidy to farmers to purchase seeds for this purpose.