Maharashtra is targeting procuring a record 11 million bales of cotton in the current marketing year till September. The Maharashtra State Co-operative Cotton Growers Marketing Federation will undertake procurement operations as a sub-agent of the state-run Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) in the current year.

While CCI is expected to procure 10 million bales in 2014-15, the federation would purchase one million bales. It will help CCI in cotton procurement in Maharashtra. This operation is primarily aimed at safeguarding the interests of farmers and avoiding any distress sale. Plentiful supplies and poor export demand had driven down cotton rates below the benchmark prices earlier in the season. However, the situation has largely improved due to procurement operations by the CCI, which has so far mopped up 8.7 million bales, just short of the record 8.9 million bales it had purchased in 2008-09.

Although procurement at the minimum support prices has been halted by the CCI in recent weeks due to an uptick in prices, some amount of cotton can still be procured from select parts of Maharashtra.

The CCI procures cotton from farmers at minimum support price and sells the stocks in the market later. Any losses out of the procurement operation are reimbursed by the government.