Cott-Ally mobile app

Why is in news? Cott-Ally mobile app has been developed for farmers to increase awareness about MSP rates, nearest procurement centers, payment tracking, best farm practices etc.

It is a free mobile-based application owned by The Cotton Corporation of India Ltd.

It provides a platform to farmers cultivating cotton.

It provides information regarding their payment status, purchase centers available across all cotton growing states in the country, variety of cotton, latest news, and notifications.

This application is developed to maintain the transparency about the business between the CCI (Cotton Corporation of India Ltd) team and the farmers.

If the farmers have any queries, they can reach out CCI team immediately by using the Live Chat feature.

For raising any complaint, they can easily access the Complaint feature of the application.

Government measures for development of cotton sector:

Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare is implementing cotton development programme under National Food Security Mission (NFSM) in 15 major cotton growing states viz., Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh & West Bengal from 2014-15 with the aim to increase production and productivity.

The assistance is being provided to the farmers on various types of demonstrations, trials on high density planting system, distribution of plant protection chemicals & bio agents, national & state level trainings. Under the scheme, an amount of Rs. 15.11 crores as central share has been allocated to States during 2022-23.

To safeguard economic interest of cotton farmers and ensure adequate availability of cotton to the textile industry Govt. of India introduced a formula of 1.5 times of cost of production (A2+FL) for declaring MSP from 2018-19.

For cotton season 2022-23, MSP of Fair Average Quality (FAQ) grade cotton had increased by about 6 % which has further been increased by 9% to 10% for ensuing cotton season 2023-24.

To safeguard the cotton farmers from distress sales, Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) is appointed as a Central Nodal agency for undertaking MSP operations when prices of Fair Average Quality grade seed cotton (kapas) fall below the MSP rates.

Brand name for Indian cotton as “Kasturi Cotton India” was launched on 7th October 2020.

Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare has sanctioned a special project on cotton titled “Targeting technologies to agro-ecological zones-large scale demonstrations of best practices to enhance cotton productivity” under NFSM during 2023-24.

This projects targets technologies such as High Density Planting System (HDPS), closer spacing and production technology for ELS cotton focusing on a cluster-based and value chain approach in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to farmers.

Ministry of Textiles constituted Textile Advisory Group (TAG) on 25th May 2022 as an informal body which facilitates inter-Ministerial coordination and represents stakeholders from the entire cotton value chain to deliberate & recommend on the issues of productivity, prices, branding, etc.

Government ensures availability of Cotton to Textile Industry through a mechanism namely Committee on Cotton Promotion and Consumption (COCPC). COCPC keeps constant watch and reviews cotton scenario in the country and aptly advises the Government generally on matters pertaining to production and consumption of cotton.