The cotton buying crisis in Telangana became worse on Tuesday, 18 November, after ginning and pressing mills across the state began an indefinite strike. Because of this, all buying of seed cotton has stopped.
The Telangana Ginning and Pressing Mills Association called the strike due to increasing frustration with the Cotton Corporation of India’s (CCI) purchase policy for the 2024–25 season. Mill owners say the policy has left them in a difficult situation.
The decision to strike came just hours after Telangana Agriculture Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao, during an important video meeting on Monday, asked mill owners to restart cotton buying from Wednesday.
Even with the minister’s request, the association announced the indefinite strike on Tuesday morning. They said that even after one month of the buying season, most mills have no stock, while farmers wait in long queues with cotton that is being rejected.