Drought, note ban hit us very hard; ryots to Central team

- Farmers pour their tales of drought woes before the members of Central team
- Team members tour drought-hit mandals of Chinnagottigallu, Yerravaripalem and Rompicherla in Chittoor district

Tirupati: “The demonetisation compounded our woes with traders not coming forward to procure our produce due to cash crunch,” lamented farmers in the mandals in western part of Chittoor district. The farmers poured their tale of distress to the Central team which toured the drought-hit mandals on Monday.

Dhananjaya Reddy, a small farmer from Chukkavaripalli in Chinnagottigallu mandal, said with the limited water available in the borewell in his field he took up horticulture crop Papaya. He said that private traders did not turn up to procure his crop because of cash crunch following the demonetisation. “I was forced to sale my Papaya at Rs 4 per kg against the normal price of Rs 20 to Amara Raja Pulp Industries,’’ he rued. Many farmers echoed the same view and said it was a double whammy–one side drought and other side the bolt from blue i.e. demonetisation deterring buyers for them in the district. Many farmers said that they were forced to sell tomato for just Rs 1 in the last two months incurring them heavy loss.

“Braving the drought condition, we took up the crop under borewells but were shattered due to the fall in the price,” they said demanding in once voice to extend input subsidy to tomato crop also and applying NREGS works to agriculture too to help the farmers.

The farmers in many mandals sought the speedy completion of the long pending Handri-Neeva project which alone they said would end their woes, citing the failure of borewells resulted huge loss to them.

A farmer Nallapa Reddy from Chettecherla said that he dug borewells 16 times in his field but only one success and that too providing water limited to one hour a day while Hemath story was different. He took up of groundnut spending Rs 20,000 per acre in three acres but got only a bag of groundnut amounting Rs 2,000 per acre. The net loss was Rs 54,000, he said.

Same was the case with the farmer C Krishnaiah of Chettewandalpalli. He had incurred a loss of Rs 10 lakh due to failure of borewells. The six-month long dry spell proving a doom to crops, the farmers said fervently appealing the team adequate measures to save them from the drought demon clutching them.

Prasad, a marginal farmer from Kattewandlapalli said that the relief promised by the government last year for crop loss still remained on papers. Bonds issued by the government are yet to be realised, he added. Farmers in one voice sought urgent measures to save their cattle where the income from Animal Husbandry is equal to agriculture, with district leading in milk production which is the main source of livelihood for agriculture labourers, small and marginal farmers in the district.

Interestingly, the three mandals Chinnagottigallu, Yerravaripalem and Rompicherla mandals were not covered under Handri-Neeva, the farmers in the mandals appealed to Central team to extend HNSS to the mandals.