Pay relief to farmers for crop loss: Revanth Reddy

Hyderabad: Telangana PCC (TPCC) president and MP A Revanth Reddy on Friday demanded the State government to immediately pay compensation to farmers who lost their crops due to unseasonal rain and insect attack.

In an open letter to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, he demanded that chilli farmers who lost their crops be paid compensation of Rs 50,000 per acre while other farmers should be given Rs 25,000 per acre. Stating that several farmers had committed suicide after they lost crops, he demanded that their families be paid an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh each.

The TPCC chief said crops spread across 25 lakh acres worth nearly Rs 8,633 crore were lost in the State due to recent unseasonal rain and insect attack. When the CM announced that he would visit the affected areas in Warangal for inspection, farmers had developed hopes of getting some relief. However, KCR cancelled the visit and instead sent a team of ministers and officials to the undivided Warangal district. He said the team neither assessed losses nor gave any concrete assurance to the affected farmers. Reddy said this year chilli was cultivated on nearly four lakh acres spread across Khammam, Mahbubabad, Kothagudem, Warangal Urban, Warangal Rural, Nalgonda and Suryapet districts. Farmers invested about Rs 1.5 lakh per acre and expected a yield of nearly 25 quintals per acre and an income of Rs 15,000 per quintal or nearly Rs 3.57 lakh for the entire yield. However, the crops were destroyed by Thrips Parvispinus, an invasive insect from Indonesia which was first seen in 2015. Consequently, as against the expected 25-30 quintals, the yield was less than three quintals causing huge losses to farmers, he said. Crops spread over 50,000 acres were damaged due to unseasonal rain in north Telangana alone.

The crop loss pushed thousands of farmers into a debt trap and consequently drove a few to suicide. On an average, he said, nearly 4-5 chilli farmers in Nalgonda, Khammam and Warangal were committing suicide every day, he alleged.

Reddy said although farmers are entitled for compensation for crop loss due to natural calamities under the Disaster Management Act, the Centre always neglected farmers of Telangana. While Rs 1,515 crore was earmarked under 14th Finance Commission for the period 2015-20, Rs 3,310 crore was allocated for 2021-2026. But the State government did not utilise the funds appropriately. While the crop damage was reported in 20 lakh acres in 2020, authorities claimed compensation for just 12,32,436 acres due to faulty enumeration of losses. This amount too was not compensated by the Centre. This badly affected farmers and pushed several of them to suicide, he said.

Reddy said that lack of any assistance by the Centre or the States had left farmers helpless and drove them to suicide. He demanded the CM to take immediate measures to pay compensation to the affected farmers without delay.