According to Ravi Capoor, Textile Secretary, the total area under cotton cultivation in fiscal 2020-21 is estimated to be 133 lakh and total production is expected to be 360 lakh bales. In fiscal 2019-20, the area under cotton cultivation was 133.74 lakh hectares and cotton production was 357 lakh bales.
In 2019-20, the Cotton Corporation of India witnessed an unprecedented procurement in its history—105.14 lakh bales in 12 states valued at ₹28,500 crore. From April 2020 to September 2020, CCI procured 20.71 lakh bales valued at ₹5615 crore. The corporation is fully geared up for for smooth conduct of minimum support price (MSP) operations. It has opened 430 procurement centers in 135 district of 12 cotton growing states. It will undertake MSP operations till last arrivals of all fair average quality (FAQ) grade kapas (raw cotton) from farmers without quantity restrictions.
Till October 6, 3.12 lakh bales of kapas had arrived in the market. Therefore, CCI could procure 2,311 bales in Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan as against nil procurement in the corresponding period of last year. The value of MSP procurement is expected to be ₹35,000 crore.
