"The prices of cotton lint had increased only due to the fact that the yield has come down drastically because of the heavy and excess rains during last monsoon and an acre of Cotton has yielded only 9 to 10 quintals instead of the 20 quintals we used to get generally."He said that the withdrawal of import duty to cotton has led to the crash down of its prices and traders have reduced the prices which is affecting the farmers.The cotton farmers association leader said that cotton is a seasonal crop and is an expensive plant. He demanded that the Union government fix a Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs 10,000 per quintal for cotton lint for the farmers to survive in the market.The textile exporters of Tiruppur are, however, rejoiced at the reduction of import duty and Raja Shanmughan, President of the association while speaking to IANS said: "This is what the government should have done earlier. This will make our industry competitive with Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lankan market and Aour finishing touches and quality are much higher and hence we will get more business. The decision of the government will affect the cotton traders who have hoarded raw cotton and not the farmers. We want the cotton farmers also to grow along with the exporters."
--IANS aal/shb/
(Disclaimer: This post has been auto published from IANS news agency without any modification to the text and has not been reviewed by editor)
