M. Mallanna is a tenant farmer as well as landlord in Mallareddypet village in Sadashivapet madnal. He has about 25 acres of land and leased out 35 acres more. He cultivated cotton on total 60 acres. He has already paid the lease amount of ₹5.25 lakh in advance as per the norms.
On an average each farmer in this village has spent about ₹20,000 per acre which comes to about ₹12 lakh in the case of Mallanna. The total debt incurred by him for this season stood at ₹17.25 lakh.
Had the cotton been harvested by the time of Dasara, as per schedule, Mallanna might have earned a few lakhs of rupees and cleared his debts. This was the case not only for Mallanna but several other farmers in the district.
Patti Ramesh, Vadde Yadagiri and others of Pottipally and P Ravinder of Machireddypally are neck deep in trouble with their debts mounting. For the past three years, lack of rains worried farmers while this year it was excess rain that damaged the crops totally. At some places cotton is getting regenerated from the balls thereby damaging the crop totally.
“Usually, we get eight quintals of yield for an acre of paddy and a qunital can be sold at ₹5,600 of minimum support price. Our crop was already damaged and discoloured. Who will buy the crop?” asked P. Ravinder of Machireddypaplly.
Though Dasara is an important festival for people in Telangana, this year the mood was not there, given their debts, said T Pruthvi Raj, president, Manjeera Rytu Samakhya.
