India’s Cotton Marketing Federation on Strike

The state-run Cotton Marketing Federation (CMF) of India is on a mass strike in protest of government treatment. Due to claims that the government refuses to recruit new staff, the organization, whose main purpose is to protect farmers from bad trade deals, will continue to protest until the situation is remedied.

CMF’s union leader, PS Kohadkar, spoke to the Times of India in order to describe the group’s predicament, saying, “Presently, the federation has 389 staffers. However, every year our strength will reduce significantly due to retirement. In December 2016, we will have 200 employees and in 2022 only 100. We have reduced the number of procurement centers due to staff shortage. Last year, we had started 257 centers but due to lack of adequate staff there was mismanagement. Hence, we opened only 109 centers this year. Gradually, the number will go down even further.”

In addition, the organization claims that the government’s actions are in retaliation for a lack of profit earned. This, however, is allegedly not intended to be the main purpose of the group. The goal of the group, according to the spokesperson, is to purchase the cotton at minimum support price (MSP) to ensure farmers are getting a fair income. The group is said to firmly believe that if they do not set up centers to buy cotton at MSP, no one will.