Union Minister of Textiles Giriraj Singh reviewed the preparedness for Minimum Support Price (MSP) operations for cotton during the upcoming Kharif Marketing Season, the Ministry of Textiles informed on Wednesday.
The Kharif Marketing Season will commence from October 1.
In a high-level meeting in Delhi on Tuesday, the Union Minister assured that all kapas arriving under MSP guidelines will be procured without disruption, with a focus on timely, transparent, and farmer-centric service delivery.
He further reaffirmed the government’s vision to protect the interests of cotton farmers by ensuring remunerative prices for their produce and accelerating the shift towards a digitally empowered cotton ecosystem.
“In line with the government’s Digital India vision, all processes — right from procurement of cotton to sale of stocks — are now completely faceless and paperless. This has strengthened farmers’ and other stakeholders’ trust in MSP operations,” the Union Minister said.
“For the first time, uniform norms have been laid down for the establishment of procurement centres, and a record 550 procurement centres have been set up across major cotton-producing states,” he said, adding that procurement of cotton under MSP will commence from October 1 in the northern states, October 15 in the central states and from October 21 in the southern states.”
He further informed about the newly-launched ‘Kapas-Kisaan’ mobile app to streamline the procurement process.
“Starting this season, nationwide Aadhaar-based self-registration of cotton farmers and 7-day rolling slot booking will be facilitated via the newly launched ‘Kapas-Kisaan’ mobile app. This digital platform aims to streamline procurement operations, ensure transparency and enable direct Aadhaar-linked payments to farmers’ bank accounts through the National Automated Clearing House (NACH). The SMS-based payment intimation service introduced last year will also continue,” he said.
Speaking about on-ground support for the farmers, the Textile Minister said Local Monitoring Committees (LMC) will be constituted at each APMC mandi for immediate grievance redressal by the States.
Additionally, dedicated state-level helplines and a Central CCI helpline will remain active throughout the procurement period. Adequate manpower deployment, logistics support and other infrastructural arrangements will be in place before the start of cotton season.
