Where cattle are sold for a song

Nagarkurnool (Mahbubnagar): There is no water in irrigation tanks, no fodder to feed as the crops withered away forcing the farmers to sell the cattle at throwaway price with tears. A number of farmers from several mandals have been bringing their cattle to sell in the second largest cattle market in the district at Telakapalli mandal headquarters as they were unable to find fodder for feeding them.

The severity of the drought could be gauged by the sale of their beloved cattle which have been with them in thick and thin. Though facing hard times, the farmers have to hire a vehicle to ferry the cattle to the market spending more than Rs 1,000. Yet there are hardly any buyers of cattle in the market. The middlemen, who take the cattle to the abattoirs, bargain with the farmers to buy the cattle at half the price, leaving them dumbstruck.

Farmers, who purchased the couple of bulls anywhere between Rs 40,000 and Rs 60,000, are being offered only Rs 20,000. The farmer had no choice as he cannot keep the cattle hungry. Farmers said that they would go to cities seeking livelihood after selling the cattle at throwaway price and repaying at least half of the amount they borrowed from the moneylenders for undertaking cultivation.

A marginal farmer who owns four to six milch buffaloes is keeping only two with him selling away the rest since a tractor load of dry grass is costing Rs 15,000 which would feed a couple of cattle for 90 days. Even the big farmer cannot afford to feed the cattle and they are also bringing the cattle to the market. Most of the middlemen are from Hyderabad purchasing cattle at throwaway price to take them to abattoirs to make sizable profits.

Chapala Shiva of Rachkonda village says that he had seven goats and four oxen. There is no water in the village and the crops withered away. “I purchased the cattle for Rs 68,000. Now the middlemen are offering only Rs 30,000,” he said adding that he did not know what to do. Sama Kashanna, Dasuvalli village said that he had been bringing the cattle to the market for the last three weeks. “But the middlemen are offering very low price for the cattle which I purchased for Rs 58,000,” he said.

When similar conditions occurred in the past, the then governments supplied fodder at various centres and even supplied water by tankers. Now there is no one even to think about the plight of farmers, the farmers lamented. Had the successive governments completed the irrigation projects in Palamuru district, the conditions would have been different. The groundwater would have been replenished and water would be available in plenty in the irrigation tanks. The government should have completed at least Kalwakurthy lift irrigation scheme to help the farmers to tide over the crisis.

Anjalappa, assistant director of Animal Husbandry department told The Hans India that a report through the district collector has been submitted to the government appealing supply of fodder and launch mineral mission. The government might release Rs 12 crore in the first week of March, he added. So far, the farmers were supplied 40 metric tonnes of jowar feed at 75 per cent subsidy and maize is also sold at five kg at the rate of Rs 65.