Groundnut farmers struggle to get MSP for crop in Mahbubnagar district of Telangana
By K Amruth Rao | Express News Service | Published: 01st March 2018 04:12 AM |
Last Updated: 01st March 2018 04:12 AM | A+A A- |
MAHBUBNAGAR: The groundnut farmers from erstwhile Mahbubnagar district are suffering because they are not getting remunerative prices for their produce. As against the fixed minimum support price of Rs 4450 per quintal by the State government, the farmers are not even getting Rs 4,000 per quintal for the crop.
The price of the crop ranges between Rs 3200 per quintal to Rs 4000 per quintal at Nagarkurnool market yard. The seriousness of the issue being faced by the groundnut farmers was brought to the notice of the state marketing minister T Harish Rao during his visit to the Nagarkurnool market yard recently.
The minister immediately responded and asked the officials of his department to take steps for the provision of the minimum support price (MSP) to the farmers. However, nothing was done to resolve the issue, and buyers and officials did not care to provide the minimum support price to the groundnut farmers.
The different market yards from Nagarkurnool district — Kalwakurthy, Achampet, Kollapur and Nagarkurnool — produced around 42,000 quintals of groundnut crop during this season. During harvest, the farmers were happy to see the abundant produce which was cultivated due to abundant availability of water.
They thought that they would get Rs 6000 to Rs 7000 per quintal from the buyers as the quality of the crop was good. However, all their hopes were dashed as there is no demand for the crop at all for varied reasons.
The buyers from the neighbouring districts like Anantapur, Kurnool and Hyderabad, and states like Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Punjab have stopped buying from the farmers of the district. This has left the farmers with no option but to sell their produce at the government fixed price.
However, they are not able to receive price fixed by the government as well. Nagarkurnool district marketing officer Balamani told Express that they were taking steps for the provision of minimum support price for groundnut crop and claimed that the farmers got Rs 3,600 per quintal to Rs 4,600 per quintal from the buyers on Saturday.
“We will take further steps to ensure that Minimum Support Price is paid to the groundnut farmers,” the district marketing officer said.
