Farmers under the banner of the All India Kisan Sangarsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) staged a demonstration outside Prakasam Bhavan here on Friday, demanding withdrawal of the three ‘anti-farmer’ pieces of legislation which they feared would deprive them of a remunerative price for their produce.
Leading the protest, AIKSCC Prakasam district convener Ch. Ranga Rao said that farmers’ organisations would not rest until the controversial pieces of legislation — the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill were withdrawn, as the bills enable corporates to fleece farmers.
Farmers will not accept the opening up of the farm sector to big corporate houses as the same would push small and marginal farmers to starvation, asserted Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangam State vice-president P. Narasimha Rao.
Farmers in these parts had suffered huge losses by raising social forestry plantations as the big corporates drove down the prices for subabul and eucalyptus in violation of the prices fixed by the State Government, Social Forestry Growers Association State secretary Vadde Hanuma Reddy said.
Those who had grown Tulasi (Ocimum tenuiflorum) in hundreds of acres in the district suffered losses after the seed supplier with who they had a buyback arrangement disappeared at the time of harvest, leaving growers in the lurch, said CPI(ML) district secretary Lalitha Kumari. TDP, Congress, CPI and CPI(M) activists too joined the protest.
