The Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) provides 100 per cent subsidy on 300 plucking machines. It had distributed 300 hand operated Kapas Plucker Machines to the cotton farmers in three major cotton growing states of Telangana, Gujarat and Maharashtra and is promoting the usage of these machines among cotton farmers through awareness meetings and print media for helping them in reducing the cost of cultivation of cotton. The beneficiary farmers were selected through baseline surveys by officials of Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC), Directorate of Agriculture, State Agricultural Universities and village panchayats for identification of the area, village and cluster of villages.

This information was given by the Minister of State of Textiles, Ajay Tamta, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

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MM/ SB