Minister for Agriculture Tummala Nageswara Rao at a meeting on cotton procurement in Hyderabad on Thursday. | Photo Credit: By Arrangement HYDERABADMinister for Agriculture Tummala Nageswara Rao has asked the authorities to take steps to expand the footprint of cotton spinning and processing industries in Telangana to reduce the price variation between purchases by the traders and minimum support price of ₹8,667 per quintal in the cotton markets.At a meeting held here on Thursday to review the preparedness for cotton purchases this season, the minister instructed the authorities to open cotton procurement centres well before the arrival of produce into the markets. The priority should be to ensure MSP, avoid delays in purchases and other measures.He explained that cotton was cultivated in 48.2 lakh acres in the recent Kharif season and the production estimated was 29.43 lakh tonnes.

In the last Kharif, it was cultivated in 50.73 lakh acres and the production was 28.33 lakh tonnes. Given the national data, the minister said cotton was cultivated in 271.06 lakh acres in 2026-27 and the production estimated was 133.04 lakh tonnes against 148.02 lakh tonnes production achieved last year.Officials of the agriculture and marketing departments explained to the minister that the model price of cotton in the market now was ₹9,000 per quintal or ₹333 per quintal more than the MSP.

The minister suggested to the farming community that they could dispose of their produce in the open market when the price there would be higher than the MSP and when the open market price falls below MSP the farmers could sell their produce in the procurement centres.The minister stated that 335 ginning mills in the State were notified as purchase centres for the 2026-27 procurement season, adding that the CCI had increased the number of procurement centres from 122 in the last season to 133 this season. Of the 356 ginning mills in the State with a capacity of processing 1,09,035 bales (170 kg per bale), 335 mills in 30 districts were notified as purchase centres so far.On the use of Kapas Kisan app made available to farmers for certifying the farmers’ details and for online payments to farmers, the minister said till October 21, the details of 12,75,185 farmers holding 21,58,938 acres were uploaded/integrated onto the app.

Published - October 22, 2026 06:47 pm IST