The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Farmers in dire straits

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Saturday, Nov 07, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Farmers in dire straits

R. Avadhani

MEDINIPUR (Medak dt.): Kummari Rajaiah, a farmer owning two acres of land at Medinipur, suddenly became a farm labourer and is now literally begging for work. He had sunk four borewells with the hope of getting groundwater investing about Rs.1 lakh. However, only one borewell yielded water. As the water yield from the borewell was not sufficient to irrigate the land he owns, he lost heavily.

The cotton he sowed thrice had completely dried up. In addition, the investment of about Rs. 20,000 on seeds and pesticides was also lost. Now, goes for work as a farm labourer in his own village. If work under NREGS is not provided, he has to work in his neighbours’ field to eke out a living. Even his family members, who used to work in their own field, were doing the same thing.

The case of B. Yadagiri, who owns five acres near Rajaiah’s field, is no different. The maize he grew was lost completely. “What should I do now? I do not know how to cover the losses and repay the loans. Please help me,” was how Yadagiri pleaded with Central team which visited the Medak district on Wednesday.

The farmers also informed the visiting team that they had not received any compensation from the government and the crop insurance was also not paid to farmers.

At Kuknoorpally village, adjacent to Medinipur, there are about 1,500 farmers and about 1,300 had completely lost their investment in agriculture due to drought a few months ago. The loss for remaining 200 farmers was not so hard. “Around 250 of in the 1,300 farmers can invest for the next crop on their own. Others cannot think about tomorrow, leave investing on the field. No one is ready to extend loans to them,” village sarpanch K. Naveen Kumar told The Hindu.

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