Telangana: Cotton cards' issued to streamline purchases

Adilabad: The department of agriculture is issuing ‘cotton cards’ to farmers as part of its efforts to streamline and bring transparency in cotton purchases.
The cards, with a barcode, will be valid for five years. Officials say that the cards will be linked to Aadhaar and bank accounts of cotton farmers. While a majority of the farmers in old Adilabad, Warangal and Khammam districts cultivate cotton, the number of cotton farmers in Karimnagar and Nizamabad districts is also sizeable.

These cards will also make it easier for the farmers to get the Rs 4,000 per acre financial assistance from the state government. Farmers who register for the cards will get information about the market price of cotton on a particular day in the form of a message. Instructions to farmers like bringing dry cotton to the market with the moisture content between 8-12 per cent, photocopies of their bank accounts etc. are printed on the cotton cards.

Officials are confident that the cotton cards will encourage transparency in cotton purchases at the agriculture market yards and eliminate malpractices. The farmers have to get details of the total extent of land they had own and the area of cotton cultivation included in the cotton cards. This will also stop agriculture officials from mistakenly passing on the benefits offered by the TS government to farmers from Maharashtra who cross over the state border and reach the market yards in the state.

Presently, agriculture extension officers are explaining to the farmers the importance of cotton cards and the need for them to produce these cards while selling their produce at agriculture market yards. A cotton farmer told this newspaper that there was a delay in issuing cotton cards and it would have been good if the cards were issued before Kharif.