Andhra Pradesh - Tirupati   

Farmers told to take ‘price advantage' of cotton

TIRUPATI: Want to know what the floods in China and Pakistan have to do with the fate of cotton farmers of Andhra Pradesh? The agricultural scientists have found a link.

The floods having taken a toll on the cotton crop in these countries, which are now short of the commodity for their domestic textile industry and the Union Government's decision to restrict the export of cotton to 55 lakh bales in 2010-11 in view of the demand of the domestic textile and yarn industry are two major factors that are expected to have a telling effect on the average cotton grower.

Final figure

The Cotton Advisory Board has estimated an output of 329 lakh bales during 2010-11, but the market sources felt that there could be 7-8 p.c. reduction when final harvesting was over.

However, the final figure could be out by the end of this month. The area under cotton in the State has seen a phenomenal rise from 14.76 lakh hectares in 2009-10 to about 18 lakh ha now. “However, the untimely rain during Nov/Dec 2010 played spoilsport, affecting both productivity and the quality of the produce”, regrets P. Raghuram, a professor of agricultural economics at SV Agricultural College, Tirupati and the co-principal investigator of National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP).

ANGRAU's Agricultural Market Intelligence Centre (AMIC) in Tirupati advises the cotton farmers to dispose the stocks at the present prices of Rs.4900-5600 per quintal depending on the quality. “Under the existing export policy, prices are not likely to increase further”, Dr. Raghuram points out.

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