HYDERABAD: While jowar farmers in Adilabad continue to reel under the shock of Telangana government not procuring their produce this year and have started resorting to protests, the Rythu Swarajya Vedika has approached the High Court with a PIL on the matter, requesting the State government to procure the jowar crop at MSP.
The PIL points out that the farmers in Adilabad decided to cultivate jowar in rabi season after suffering a bad kharif season due to the pink bollworm attack on cotton crop, discouragement from the government on cultivating maize and motivated by the procurement of jowar by the State in 2018-19 and 2019-20.
After taking these factors into consideration, farmers planted sorghum in around 34,161 acres in the district, resulting in a record harvest of around 4.6 lakh quintals.
The PIL also highlights that while the MSP for jowar has been fixed at Rs 2,660 per quintal this year, the market value is just Rs 1,100 to Rs 1,400 per quintal, which might result in a loss of at least Rs 6,000 per acre for the farmers.