NewsWire18, Tuesday, Nov 3 . By Dev Dutt MUMBAI - The Maharashtra State Cooperative Cotton Growers Marketing Federation will, on Thursday, begin procurement of the crop at minimum support prices on behalf of National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India for 2009-10 (Oct-Sep), MSCCGMF Chairman N.P. Hirani told NewsWire18. "The federation will get a fee at the rate of 2% of the total procurement cost as per agreement inked on Nov 27 with NAFED. We wish to procure 20 mln quintals (2 mln tn) in 2009-10, against about 17 mln quintals (1.7 mln tn) procured for NAFED in 2008-09," he said. Hirani, however, said the federation may not be able to procure a higher quantity in 2009-10 due to factors like fear of lower output in some states on delayed monsoon, late sowing, crop diseases and prices above MSPs offered to farmers by traders. The government has maintained MSPs of cotton for 2009-10 at 2,500 rupees per 100 kg for medium staple, and 3,000 rupees for long staple, unchanged from previous year. The rates are about 40% higher from MSPs in 2007-08. End . Edited by Mansi Kelkar . NewsWire18 Tel +91 (22) 6637-8700 Send comments to feedback@newswire18.com . Copyright NewsWire18 Pvt. Ltd. 2007. All rights reserved. Category : C/COT C/AGR R/ASI R/IN R/SHA S/EXL S/TOP