Farmers seek Minimum Support Price, more mandays

Nellore: Farmers made an appeal to the Central team to provide Minimum Support Price (MSP) for their crops and also additional mandays under NREGS in rural areas. The inter-ministerial Central team visited areas in Kavali division on Thursday and the team members said that they would submit a report to the Central government for necessary action.

Head of the team Neeraja Adidam along with other members visited Jammalapalem, Siddanakonduru and also other areas in Kavali division. Earlier, district administration had provided a power point presentation to the team members on drought scenario in the district.

Chief Planning Officer PBK Murthy informed that the district had received losses of Rs 254.47 crore in which Rs 26.61 crore from agriculture, Rs 96 lakh from horticulture and Rs 2.269 crore from Animal Husbandry wings. He also said that financial assistance of Rs 70.34 crore to the district is highly needed for taking up drought relief activity. State government had declared t 46 mandals as drought-hit areas, he added.

The team visited dried up crops in Kaligiri and Siddanakonduru villages and observed water levels in a local tank at Jaladanki. They also interacted with farmers in Siddanakonduru and enquired about actual situation of groundwater. A farmer, who runs a local dairy, Rani Pramila, said that the situation of dairy farming in the area was so discouraging with no adequate rains.

Farmers also appealed to the central team to increase man-days under NREGS from 150 days to 250 days keeping in view of drought conditions in the district. Rajya Sabha member Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy, Farmers Association leader B Venkata Ramarao, Central team member BK Srivatsav, Niti Aayog member Ajay Kumar, Joint Collector K Vetriselvi and others were present.