The Ministry of Textiles first stage of the project on direct transfer of funds to cotton farmers’ accounts will be rolled out in Arvi taluk, Wardha district of Maharashtra, on an experimental basis, if the price of cotton drops below the Minimum Support Price (MSP), said Textile Commissioner, Kavita Gupta.

The taluk was identified for the project as land documents are digitised and the Agriculture Produce Market Committee has better infrastructure. They are evolving a mechanism to make the payment directly to the farmers. They are still working on procedural modalities, she said.

The Ministry of Textiles will make available the funds to the state government to be paid to the farmers. The Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) will get into MSP operations as and when required in the cotton-growing states.

The Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) Chairman M Senthil Kumar said that the decision taken by the Central Government will benefit the textile industry.

During the last cotton season, the industry paid higher prices for cotton, especially textile mills in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh though these are cotton-producing states. China also has a system for direct payment of benefits to farmers and the Chinese spinning mills have benefited from it.