Cotton will be procured directly from farmers in Rajasthan by the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) at the minimum support price (MSP) in the next cotton season and payments made to their accounts. Rajasthan is the first cotton-growing state in North India to make direct transaction mandatory for procurement at MSP.

The cotton season starts in October. Earlier, much of the cotton purchased by the CCI came through middlemen or aggregators in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, with farmers not getting the government-set MSP. Over 12,000 farmers have been registered in Shree Ganganagar district and the process is under way in Hanumangarh and Bhilwara districts. India recently raised the MSP on medium-staple fiber cotton by 28 per cent and on long-staple by 26 per cent.

The hike is expected to help firm up prices in India compared to the last season, when those were lower compared with the global market. The CCI has started arrangements for ginning and storage of cotton for the ensuing harvesting season. Cotton availability for the 2017-18 season is estimated to be 416 lakh bales. This includes an opening stock of 36 lakh bales. Cotton in India is one of the most important commercial fibers and commodities exported due to its uses in the textile industry, mattresses etc.