Telangana: Distressed farmers burn chilli in fields

Mancherial: Distressed and irate chilli farmers have started burning their produce in the fields itself, instead of transporting it to the market to be sold. The price that they are being offered for their produce does not even cover the cultivation cost. The burning of produce generated through hard labour is indicative of the hurt and anger experienced by farmers due to exploitation by agents and failure of the state government to offer remunerative prices. The cost of transportation of chilli from the field to the market is higher than the amount farmers make by selling it.

Farmers say that intermediaries are taking advantage of the situation and forcing them to accept whatever price they offer.Ramanna, a distressed chilli farmer from Nadimigadda village in Vemanapalli mandal of Mancherial, burnt 38 quintals of dry chilli on his field four days ago. He said that he had burnt it because he realized that he would not get a good price in the market; not even equivalent to the money he had invested in cultivation. He said that middlemen were offering between Rs 2,000 and Rs 2,500 per quintal, which was very low as compared to the cost of cultivation. He added that investment costs had increased many fold due to rising labour wages and the high prices of seeds and fertilizers.

Mr Ramanna said that there were no chilli-purchasing centres nearby, and so farmers would have the spend a large amount of money to transport their produce to Nagpur in Maharashtra to receive a moderate price of Rs 3,000 per quintal, which would not cover their investment and transportation costs. Though farmers are complaining of exploitation, there hasn’t been much of a change in the retail price of chilli as compared to last year. The retail price of 1 kg of chilli is currently Rs 90, whereas last year it was Rs 110. This is indicative of the massive exploitation of farmers by middlemen and agents.