India, Sept. 3 -- The Centre will ramp up purchases of cotton at federally-fixed minimum support prices or MSP to cushion farmers from falling local rates, following the government's decision to waive duty on imports of the fibre and beef up an apparel sector bracing for Trump's 50% tariff.

Already, farmers are battling price pressures because textile manufacturers prefer to import cheaper short-staple fibre because of higher domestic rates. One of the country's largest employers, the textile industry itself had been pleading the Union government for a duty reprieve due to falling margins and a knock-on impact of the pandemic.

The Centre, having to prop up the labour-intensive apparel industry on the one hand and cotton growers, on the ...