Praja Sankalpa Yatra Diary Day 19: Farming An Unceasing Festivity, Not A Calamity

November 27, 2017, Vemugodu, Kurnool District:

All along today's padayatra route, there were cotton fields. Yet, there wasn't a speck of happiness on any farmer's face. I examined the fields and interacted with the farmers, most of whom are tenant farmers. Raju, a tenant farmer himself, had sown cotton in five acres. He had invested nearly Rs 35000 per acre. But pink boll worm infestation has put paid to all his dreams. The yield was less than five quintals per acre and the rate hovered between just Rs 1500 to 2000 per quintal. This is the plight of most farmers in this region and the Government, which should have come to their succour in this hour of crisis, is deafeningly silent.

The Government did not supply the much-needed pheromone traps, which have to be provided on subsidy to the farmers. Similar problems came to the fore at the farmers' meet in Kodumuru. This is the case with all the crops, not just cotton. I asked them about Chandrababu's much-touted loan waiver. They said the loan has not been waived and that they were still getting bank notices to repay the loan. The pittance that they were doled out isn't enough even to pay the interest, they told me. They said that they cannot approach any bank for fresh loans. The farmers are mainly worried about the support price for their produce. They had enjoyed favourable price support during my late father's time. Today, a proper, remunerative price eludes them.

What is worse, the Chief Minister himself has turned into a middleman by buying the produce at throwaway prices and stacking them in his Heritage outlets to sell at higher prices to the customers. An agrarian crisis suits him the most and hence, he is not interested in providing support price to the farmers using the price stabilisation fund. The government’s neglect of the farming community and its anti-farmer policies have turned agriculture into an unbearable burden for the cultivator. The situation will remain grim as long as we have a dispensation that feels farming is a wasteful endeavour.

I have a dream. I want to stand by the farmers in their hour of need by bringing down input costs, providing uninterrupted power supply and supplying quality seeds, pesticides and fertilisers, ensuring remunerative price for the produce and guaranteeing crop loss compensation in case of calamities. Thus, I want to turn agriculture into a celebration. There should not be a single suicide by a farmer. A farmer's face should radiate happiness and every agricultural family should beam with boundless joy. Farmers should feel that farming is not a never ending calamity, but an unceasing festivity. This dream, I strongly believe, will be fulfilled under the People's Government tomorrow.

Here's my poser to Chandrababu Naidu. Isn’t your empty talk of providing technological innovations in the farm sector a cruel joke on farmers when you are not able to provide basic needs such as irrigation, uninterrupted power supply, quality seeds, fertilisers, timely loans and much-needed support price to the farmers? Is it not a fact that not even one fifth of the 16 lakh tenant farmers in your government records, are able to get farm loans?