There are no frayed tempers this year, no shouts for the best price. A drastically reduced yield this season has left cotton farmers with little option over the price of their produce.

The Cotton Corporation of India (CCI), with all its stringent norms, has turned out to be a better bet in terms of prices, and farmers across the district have sold most of their produce to the CCI.

The price of cotton is now pegged at around Rs.3,900 a quintal, which is what private traders offer. This is still below the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs.4,050 per quintal. The CCI is offering the minimum support price for cotton containing moisture not above 8 per cent.

Trading started last month on a worrisome note with farmers staging protests over the price and the condition put forth by the CCI over the moisture content in cotton. Private traders too sought to fix the price based on CCI’s conditions, saying produce with more than 12 per cent moisture content would be rejected and that with below 8 per cent would attract proportionate price.

Arrivals at markets in the district, especially the major ones of Adilabad and Bhainsa, are comparatively less owing to the reduced yield. So far, only 90,458 quintals of cotton have been traded across the district, with the CCI buying 58,758 of it – less than a quarter of the normal arrivals for corresponding period in any given year in the past.

Adilabad market receives about 2,000 quintals a day, dismally short for operating the huge processing industry concentrated at Rampur village. The district has a total of 134 cotton ginning, pressing and oil mills which require tens of thousands of quintals of cotton.