Don’t drive farmers to distress sale: Somireddy

Minister for Agriculture Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy on Wednesday urged legislators not to psychologically push farmers into making distress sale. Reacting to the statement of independent MLC V Balasubramanyam that farmers were forced to sell paddy at prices way below the MSP, the Minister said such statements make farmers sell at rates mentioned by political leaders. Intervening in a short discussion on “Agriculture support activities, growth, drought proofing and Rythu bazaars” in the Council, the Minister said farmers were already in a precarious state of mind. He said it would be better if political leaders made statements that were encouraging. He said the farmers should be told that the government was ready to purchase any amount of grain at the MSP. The Minister said the situation this year was slightly different from the previous years. A few countries that were importing rice had suddenly stopped or reduced the demand. Similarly, there was no demand from Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Odisha as there was a surplus there. Mr. Balasubramanayam however said he was stating the facts on distress sale.

Sugarcane cultivation

In the question hour, the MLCs were told that the area under sugarcane cultivation had decreased in the East Godavari district. Diversion from sugarcane to “more remunerative crops like paddy, palm oil, maize and tapioca” was given as the reason. The scarcity of labour in general and for harvesting in particular was another. The Minister said the government was ensuring that ₹3,400 was being paid per tonne while the Central government had fixed the fair and remunerative price at ₹2,550 per tonne.