TMC approves two cotton mandis for Orissa

Bhubaneswar, May 4 (UNI) The Technology Mission for Cotton (TMC) has approved the proposal for setting two new cotton mandis with processing units-- one at Digapahandi in Ganjam district and the other at Parlakhemundi in Gajapati district.

The state cooperation department has submitted the proposal to TMC as very good quality of cotton was being cultivated in some parts of Orissa which was approved recently.

Official sources said very good quality of cotton is cultivated in Ganjam and Gajapati districts, but since there were no cotton mandis with processing facilities, the area of coverage under cotton in these districts was steadily declining.

A rapid survey conducted in March 2007 revealed that about 35,000 farmers in 40 cotton-growing blocks in the districts of Bolangir, Ganjam, Gajapati, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Rayagada and Koraput have shown keen interest in taking up cotton cultivation under contract farming arrangements.

The data collected in a similar survey for Kharif 2006 showed that 25,000 farmers had shown interest in contract farming in cotton indicating the farmers' awareness about it.

A review meeting held here yesterday under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on the progress of contract farming and marketing of agricultural produce in the state claimed that all the cotton cultivated by farmers under contract farming arrangements was procured by the private entrepreneurs and the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI).

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