The chickpea growers in Prakasam district are a worried lot as pest infestation in the wake of unseasonal rains in January adversely impacted the productivity drastically this year. They plead with the Andhra Pradesh government to bail them out by procuring the pulse crop at an enhanced price of ₹7,000 per quintal.
Projected as an alternative to tobacco, farmers in Prakasam district have cultivated the protein-rich commercial crop including hybrid varieties such as KAK II and Mexican Bold in more than 2 lakh acres as it is a low risk crop which can sustain itself with little moisture from winter dew and give a good yield. However, they now rue their fate as rampant pest infestation resulted in a 40% fall in productivity.
The Market Intervention Scheme announced by the State government to purchase both local and hybrid varieties at a uniform price of ₹5,230 per quintal has not gone down well with the farmers.
The local variety fetched only ₹4,400 per quintal in open market. The State government which has launched market intervention through the Rythu Bharosa Kendras at ₹5,230 per quintal, should enhance the price to at least ₹7,000 per quintal as the farmers are on the verge of committing suicide, said a group of farmers while waiting for their turn to sell the crop at the RBK in N.G. Padu.
The State government should purchase at least 25% of the produce to create market buoyancy, they added.
After a whirlwind visit of the farms in the chickpea growing areas in both the eastern and western parts of the district, Samyukta Kisan Morcha Prakasam district convenor Ch. Ranga Rao said that productivity had plummeted to four to five quintals per acre when compared to the normal of eight to 10 quintals per acre.
Lease rent
Tenant farmers are the worst affected as they are not in a position to get back the lease rent of more than ₹20,000 per acre which they had paid in advance to land owners. Apart from this, the farmers have incurred an expense of over ₹25,000 per acre to grow chickpea, said Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangam district president P. Hanumantha Rao.
“The State government should bail out farmers by providing a remunerative price of C2 plus 50% as per the formula evolved by agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan,” said APRS-led Tenant Farmers Association secretary V. Balakotaiah.
Those who can wait have preferred to put their produce in cold storage this year expecting that exporters would pick the KAK-II and Mexican Bold varieties at a premium price as a majority of farmers had gone for the local JJ-11 variety. This was at a time when cold storage units had three-year carry over stock of 12 lakh quintals of the produce as farmers were unable to find buyers for the old crop.
Meanwhile, TDP farmers wing district president K. Venkaiah urged the State government to relax the condition that only those farmers who had registered their names under the Aadhaar-enabled web land-based biometric system were eligible to sell at the RBKs. A majority of tenant farmers had not done e-crop booking in the district for various reasons, he added.
