VIJAYAWADA: Krishna district administration came to the rescue of 312 farmers of Chatrai mandal who suffered losses due to the poor quality of seeds sold by a Karimnagar-based seed agency.
Krishna district Superintendent of Police M Ravindranath Babu said one Nagarjuna Seed Agency based in Huzurabad of Karimnagar district in Telangana State, sold '1224 paddy variety' seeds to the farmers in six villages in Chatrai mandal through distributor Nalla Vara Prasad in Tiruvuru in Krishna district. "Instead of getting 38 bags of paddy per acre, the farmers who used this variety, got only 15-20 bags," the SP said.
Worried farmers filed a complaint with Chatrai police alleging that the seeds company cheated them by selling poor quality seeds. "We used to get more than 38 bags of paddy per acre. But this time, we suffered huge losses," said S Prabhakar Reddy, a farmer.
Upon learning about the plight of farmers, the district administration held several meetings with the company officials and convinced them to pay compensation of Rs 38.5 lakh to the farmers at Chatrai village.
"A compensation of Rs 5,800 per bag was given to the farmers who suffered crop loss. The company sold 663 bags to the farmers in six villages," said District Collector A Md Imtiaz while addressing a public meeting held at Chatrai village on Friday.
When the farmers told the Collector that they are facing problems due to lack of paddy procurement centres in the mandal, he promised that eight new paddy procurement centres will be set up for the benefit of farmers.
"Farmers are the backbone of our nation and it is our responsibility to help them. The State government is committed to the welfare of farmers," the Collector said. He added that the SP warned of stern action against those found cheating farmers by selling poor quality seeds. Besides, Preventive Detention (PD) Act will also be invoked against them.
Nuzvid Sub-Collector Prathistha Mangain, DSP B Sreenivasulu, Agriculture Joint Director Mohan Rao and others were present.