Andhra Pradesh   

Chilli farmers demand easing of quality norms

By Our Staff Reporter

GUNTUR, JUNE 9. Consequent on the National Agricultural Federation's refusal to accept inferior quality of chillies under the Market Intervention Scheme-2004 at Guntur, the A.P. Markfed was accepting only FAQ varieties from Wednesday. This had led to protests and farmers stopped vehicular traffic for about an hour on the busy Guntur-Sattenapalli Road.

The District Collector, K. Ramakrishna Rao, deputed the Guntur Mandal Revenue Officer, K. Anand Babu, to pacify the agitated growers, who relented by noon. During the Telugu Desam Party regime, the Markfed officials were advised to relax the norms in view of the elections as it did not want to invite the wrath of the farmers then. Once the Congress came to power, chilli farmers resorted to suicide, forcing the Government not to implement the quality norms strictly in order to curb the suicidal tendency among them. However, the Government did not want to lose the 50 per cent assistance from NAFED and as such implemented quality norms.

The NAFED needs to pay its share of Rs. 31 crores to A.P. Markfed for procurement made so far, for which the Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, had represented to the Union Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar, on Tuesday. The NAFED officials had refused to accept inferior quality of chillies procured so far and threatened to withhold its share of funds.

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