Farmers in Andhra Pradesh are in distress: Jagan

Amaravati, Feb 19 (IANS) YSR Congress Party president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday claimed that farmers in Andhra Pradesh are in distress as they are unable to get remunerative prices for their produce.

The former Chief Minister, who visited the Mirchi Yard in Guntur and interacted with farmers, told media persons that ever since the TDP-led coalition government came to power, farmers are not only deprived of Minimum Support Price (MSP) but there are no buyers for their produce.

He alleged that no crop is fetching the MSP for farmers. “Take any crop, whether black gram, green gram, tomato or cotton, farmers are not getting the MSP,” he said.

Jagan Mohan Reddy demanded that Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu should visit the Mirchi Yard and rescue farmers.

He said that the mirchi (chillies) rate has drastically fallen from Rs 27,000 to Rs 8,000 per quintal and yield per acre has also come down drastically when compared to the previous year. Above this, the input costs have gone up and the tenant farmers are bearing the brunt.

The situation is the same in Krishna, NTR, Guntur, Bapatla, Prakasam, Kurnool and Anantapuram districts, he said while accusing Chandrababu Naidu-led government of selling farmers to middlemen.

“Despite such a grave situation, there is no review from the government side and the Chief Minister and the Agriculture Minister have no concern for farmers, leaving them in the lurch. Chandrababu Naidu and his coalition government have not only let down the farmers but also stopped all the revolutionary reforms brought in by the YSRCP government,” he said.

Jagan Mohan Reddy recalled that when his YSRCP was in power, it was giving MSP not just for chillies, turmeric and onions but for 24 crops. “If the farmers were not getting MSP, our government had provided it and RBKs were used as an anchor point for farmers. We made the best use of technology to map the prices of commodities across the state through the CM app. Now while chilli farmers are facing hardships, Chandrababu Naidu is least bothered,” he alleged.

He said during the YSRCP rule when crops were affected by pests, the field staff used to take care and advise farmers. “Integrated farm labs were there for quality control, during our term, chilli farmers got the maximum price. The present government has reversed many of our decisions including crop insurance,” he added.

The YSRCP chief said that cotton farmers are not even getting Rs 7,000 while it was Rs 10,000 during YSRCP rule. Tomato farmers too are not getting a fair price, he said adding at least now Chandrababu Naidu should come to the rescue of farmers.

–IANS

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