TNAU asked farmers to seel harvestd cotton
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University has asked farmers to sell the harvested cotton immediately, since storing it would not fetch any returns.The current price for good quality medium staple cotton is between Rs. 2,400 and Rs.2,600 a quintal.Analysis shows that the prices from July to September will range from Rs. 2,600 to Rs. 2,700. From October, a slight decline in price is expected.This forecast was made by the Domestic and Export Market Intelligence Cell of the university.The team comprising N. Raveendran, S. Selvam and S. Anita, came to the conclusion after studying the monthly data of market prices for the last 12 years.According to trade sources, the mill consumption of cotton in Tamil Nadu is around 70 lakh bales and only 7 per cent of the requirement is supplied from the State’s production.Rest comes from the northern part of the country, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and some from imports.Trade sources confirm that the world cotton consumption is projected to increase by 2 per cent to 26.7 million tonnes.But, the International Cotton Advisory Committee has projected that the world cotton production would drop marginally during 2007-08.
On the contrary, the area under cotton cultivation in the country increased from 86.77 lakh hectare to 91.58 lakh hectare with a production of 270 lakh bales in 2006-07.Remunerative cotton prices and better yields favoured cotton when compared to competitive crops like groundnut and maize.India exported 50 lakh bales of cotton and imported six lakh bales of extra long staple cotton.
