Textile minister prods Sharad Pawar to hike cotton MSP

Will Sharad Pawar, minister of agriculture and Maharashtra MP, pay heed to the demand of textiles and commerce minister Anand Sharma to increase the minimum support price (MSP) for raw cotton?

According to sources, Sharma has written a letter to Pawar, asking him to revise the prices of cotton upwards because farmers from Maharashtra and Gujarat were not happy with the current MSP.

“Our minister has asked for minimum support price of Rs 4,000 per quintal for the long staple cotton as against the current Rs3,300,” said a source in the textiles ministry.

Maharashtra produced seven  million bales of cotton last year. It accounts for about a fifth of the nation’s cotton production. Cotton is the second-most important commercial crop in the state after sugarcane.

Recently, Sharma and Pawar had locked horns over the ban of cotton exports.

While Sharma, in the capacity of commerce minister, was of the view that the country had exceeded the target of eight million bales for the current year, Pawar was upset that he was not consulted before taking such decision.

The ministry of commerce had to make changes in the condition of the ban, by allowing exports for all contracts registered through the land custom stations until March.