GUNTUR: Highlighting the plight of the farmers due to the prevailing adverse weather conditions, decreasing yield and lack of remunerative prices, former MP Y Sivaji, has reiterated his demand for declaring an ‘agriculture emergency’ in the state.
Making the demand while addressing the state-level convention of cotton farmers here on Thursday, he added: ``After declaring such an ‘agriculture emergency’, all the government departments should put all their activities on hold for a period of 3 months and should focus only on agriculture-related issues so as to bail out the farmers from the crisis’’.
Recalling the recent instance of the entire district administration focusing attention on the Government General Hospital (GGH) here following the rat-bite death of an infant there, he said that the government should show similar concern towards the plight of the distressed farmers by declaring an ‘agriculture emergency’.
As no political party or political leader was showing any concern over the plight of the farmers in the state, they were resorting to extreme steps (suicides), he alleged.
Meanwhile, the cotton farmer leaders at the convention flayed the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) for imposing several restrictions in the purchase of cotton.
By insisting that the cotton should have a moisture content of less than 8 per cent, the CCI was forcing the farmers to sell their produce to the middlemen as the farmers, the farmer leaders alleged and demanded that the CCI should withdraw all restrictions.
They also fumed the governments both at Central and State governments for ignoring their promise of implementing the Swaminathan Committee Recommendations.rmer MLC KS Lakshman was amont those who attended the convention.