'Cotton cluster is against TS policy'

Selection of Adilabad under Micro- small enterprises cluster development programme (MSE- CDP) for the cotton industrial cluster by the Central government will go against the state government policy to encourage alternative crops and traditional crops in place of commercial crops to prevent farmer suicides in Telangana.

The state government is discouraging the cultivation of cotton while encouraging traditional crops and also organic farming.

As part of the cotton industrial cluster, small-scale cotton ginning factories will be established at mandal and even at GP level. It was established fact that cotton farmers were in the majority of the farmers who committed suicide in the Adilabad district.

The Central government is establishing various clusters based on local crops and available deposits of minerals and materials in five districts that are Granite industries in Karimnagar and Khammam, cotton ginning industries in Adilabad, rice mills in Nizamabad and Nalgonda in the state.

The Central government will give Rs 25 crore for the development of cotton industrial clusters every year in the district.       

The poor MSP and exploitation by the cotton traders, spurious seeds and increased investment costs and successive drought and failure of borewells and mounted debts and super officials institutional loaning forced the farmers to take extreme steps.

Rythu Athma Hatyala Nivarana Committee district convenor Sangepu Borranna said a majority of the farmers’ suicides were cotton farmers and it is high time to shift them to other traditional crops.   

Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy during his recent visit to Tamsi mandal reiterated that there was a need to shift in the cropping pattern and farmers should go for traditional crops like Jowar, Maize and vegetable instead commercial crop cotton.

He observed that cost of cultivation was increased many folds in cotton cultivation and this has become an additional burden on farmers. He also stressed upon the need for organic farming to get remunerative prices to the crops.