Telangana govt. urged to intervene to check price crash leading to farmer suicides
Hyderabad: The Telangana Rythu Sangham has urged the state government to immediately intervene and check the fall in price of chillies owing to cartelization in the market. The fall in chilli prices from Rs 25,000 per quintal to Rs 12,000 has led to suicide of two farmers and death of another owing to heart attack.
Penning an open letter to Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy sangham secretary T. Sagar wrote, “The government should open MARKFED centres and purchase chillies to save farmers. The state government should bring pressure on the Centre for setting up a chilli board. The traders are attributing the fall in price to slack exports but it is a well-known fact that rates increase once the produce is in traders’ hands. The Congress party had promised to provide a minimum support price of Rs 15,000 per quintal but owing to increased costs farmers should get a price of Rs 25,000. The productivity of chilli has fallen from a normal 30 to 40 quintals per acre to 12 quintals this year.”
Farmers spent Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakhs per acre this year and are not getting even their investment back. This has led to protests by farmers in Khammam, Kothagudem, Mulugu, Warangal, Mahabubabad, Nagarkurnool and Nalgonda districts.
The farm leader stated that the rates in the international market are good and MARKFED will not incur any losses even if it purchases chilli for Rs 25,000 per quintal. Lack of sufficient cold storages in the state has led to exploitation of farmers.
The government should take immediate steps to stop this exploitation, Sagar said in the letter.
