HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the government in a PIL filed by social activist Sangepu Borranna, seeking a GO for procurement of jowar by paying Minimum Support Price (MSP) to farmers and directed it to file replies within two weeks.
The court ordered the issue of notices to the Principal Secretary Department of Agriculture and Marketing, Commissioner and Director of Agriculture, Adilabad District Agricultural Officer, Adilabad District Collector, and the Managing Director, TS MARKFED.
Vasudha Nagaraj, counsel for the petitioner, noted that Adilabad is a district where the indigenous population, which is primarily tribal, has been cultivating millets for numerous generations. The counsel argued that in recent years, farmers in Adilabad have switched to cotton, soybean, and red gram farming during the Kharif season, owing to poor market conditions. Bengal gram, maize, and jowar are grown during the rabi season.The government had set the MSP at `2738 per quintal for Jowar this time, but the market pricing is at `1,500 to `1,700 per quintal.
Jowar farming costs an average of `21,040 per acre, with an average output of roughly 12 quintals. If the farmer sells at market price, he would receive `18,000, resulting in a loss of `3,040 per acre. The farmer will gain a profit of about `1,18,16 per acre if the government purchases jowar.
The counsel for the petitioner said that the farmers have been protesting in Adilabad district since the beginning of May 2022, urging the government to purchase their crop, stating that failure to do so will result in severe impoverishment among jowar-growing farmers.
Left with no means of subsistence
The counsel for the petitioner said if the government does not procure jowar from the farmers, they would suffer irreparable losses and will be left with no means of subsistence, especially during the epidemic