The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Andhra Pradesh State President K. Atchannaidu has stated that a crisis was prevailing in the agriculture sector due to anti-farmer policies.
In a statement on Thursday, September 23, 2021, the former minister said that the farmers were slipping into debt trap due to lack of remunerative prices. The prices of tomato and chilli have fallen beyond expectations. Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy remained a silent spectator and utterly failed in rescuing the farmers.
The farmers who cultivated tomatoes in Kurnool, Anantapur and Chittoor were hardly getting ₹ 1 to ₹5 a kg. They were unable to get even the transportation charges and expenses incurred on coolies. The prices of green chillies have slipped to ₹3 a kg. The graduate farmers were not harvesting the produce in view of the drastic fall in prices, and gross mismatch between expenditure and market prices.
In Hindupur market yard, mirchi prices have come down to₹3,000 quintal. The cotton farmers too were facing similar hardships. The government was cutting the price if moisture content was more than 8 percent. The Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) was not purchasing if the moisture was more than 12 percent.
“What the Chief minister and Agriculture Minister Kurasala Kanna Babu were doing when the farmers were facing hardships? What happened to the price stabilisation fund of ₹3,000 crore?,” he asked, and urged the State government to take necessary steps to benefit farmers.
