Union minister of state for textiles Santosh Gangwar has been urged to increase the minimum support price (MSP) for cotton from Rs 4,100 to Rs 5,000 per quintal by the Irrigation and Marketing Minister T Harish Rao in his letter to the Union minister on Wednesday.

Harish Rao said that due to dry spells in the state, the farmers raised cotton on a large extent instead of raising food grain crops. As a result, the expected cotton yield would be 284 lakh quintals this year against last year’s 205.8 lakh quintals. With the increase in input costs, the present MSP would not help the farmer.

The minister also sought the Centre to relax the norms of purchasing; the Cotton Corporation would purchase cotton having 8 to 12 percent moisture. The moisture content in cotton would be 12 to 20 percent in October and November which CCI need to take into account while purchasing cotton.

Also there should be no cap on the purchase of cotton. CCI needs to dispense with the norm of purchasing only 40 lakh quintals of cotton a day, the minister said.