By IANS
New Delhi : The government Thursday decided to shortly fix the minimum support price (MSP) for procurement of various varieties of cotton from farmers.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, set out the guidelines for the Committee on Agriculture Cost and Price (CACP), Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters.
He said the CCEA had given a green signal to the “CACP to recommend MSP of two classes of cotton with the specified characteristics of staple length and micronaire value”.
The two varieties are: the cotton bales with staple length varying from 24.5 millimetre to 25.5 mm with 4.35-5.1 micronaire value, and second the cotton bales with 29.5-30.5 mm staple length with 3.5-4.3 micronaire value.
The CCEA has suggested to the CACP to give a premium over and above the MSP if the micronaire value is in the range of 3.8 to 4.2. “If it happens to be less than 3.8 or more than 5.1, the MSP should be lower depending on the difference in quality and its consequent normal price and other relevant factors,” said Chidambaram.
“If the micronaire values are outside this range, then lower MSP should be worked out, considering the quality differentials, normal price differentials and other relevant factors.”
The finance minister said: “Along with the recommendation of MSP for the above two classes of cotton, CACP will specify the varieties of cotton falling in these two classes on year-to-year basis. This will help the farmers and the procurement agencies to identify the cotton crops by their classes.”
As for other classes of cotton, Chidambaram said: “The textile commissioner will fix the MSP based upon the MSP fixed by CACP”.
For this, “the baseline moisture content of cotton should be eight percent. Whereas a farmer selling cotton with more than eight percent moisture level will get proportionately less price, there will be a proportionate incentive too, if the moisture content of the produce is less than eight percent,” he said.
He said that micronaire value of the cotton bales “will be decided scientifically by the textile ministry by providing the required infrastructure/facilities at the purchase centres.”