Hyderabad: Farmer unions have demanded that the state government declare drought-hit mandals, which would enable farmers to get concessions such as input subsidy and rescheduling of crop loans.
The government’s announcement of Rs.10,000 compensation for those affected by rains is well intended, but more measures are needed to provide respite to farmers, said Kanneganti Ravi, farm expert and member of the Rythu Swarajya Vedika.
He said the BRS government had not taken measures to mitigate the suffering of farmers in case of calamities and did not implement the measures suggested by Marri Chenna Reddy Human Resource Development (MCRHRD) Institute for fighting drought.
Ravi said remedial measures must be taken based on the MCRHRD’s recommendations.
According to the farmer unions, the BRS government did not prepare an agriculture action plan for 2022 and 2023. “An action plan would have entailed farmers going for less water intensive crops in rabi which would have reduced the need for water and sinking of borewells to save drying crops.”
The state has paddy sown over 50,69,326 acres, down from 56,44,850 acres last year. The normal area under the crop is 40,50,785 acres. The area under paddy, which requires large quantities of water, grew manifold as former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao made it a benchmark for the prosperity of farmers and attributed the increased acreage to the success of Kaleshwaram project.
The higher area under paddy led to concerns of mono-cropping and consequent problems like groundwater depletion and soil degradation.
“A functioning crop insurance scheme would have ensured compensation to farmers. However, the BRS government did not join the centrally-sponsored PM Fasal Bima Yojana in 2020 but did not bother to launch its own,” said Ravi Kanneganti.
He said the Congress government should not seek refuge in blaming the BRS government and must help the farmers by after seeking approval from the Election Commission as the model code was in force. Tenant farmers, the real cultivators, should be identified and compensated.
He accused BRS leaders such as K.T. Rama Rao and Harish Rao of hypocrisy when the BRS government did not identify farmers who had died by suicide, and failed to compensate calamity-hit farmers.
Mood Shoban, state joint secretary of the Telangana Rythu Sangham, said, “The government should identify and declare drought-hit mandals and take up measures to help farmers. The compensation should be based on the scale of finance and should be `50,000 for food crops and `1 lakh for commercial crops. Varieties which can withstand climatic changes should be given to farmers.”
