VIJAYAWADA: Hoping for a bumper crop, K Murali, 45, who took three acres of farmland on lease in his native Uppaluru in Kankipadu mandal of Krishna district, cultivated black gram in November, when farming community was reeling under the impact of demonetisation.
About three months later, he has no crop to harvest, as it was lost to Bud Necrosis, a virus, which had infected the black gram. The climate too was not conducive to the crop this time, the experts said.
He invested around Rs 8,000 per acre, after having tough time raising the required money for the paying wages to workers. Seeds and pesticides were already stocked before demonetisation. “It has been a long practice to cultivate black gram immediately after harvesting of paddy in various parts of the State. I did not get the expected yield in paddy, which I had cultivated earlier. It was just 27 bags (75 kg per bag) per acre instead of usual 34-36 bags,” he said.
As the practice has been in the region for long, the tenant farmer has to pay to the landowner 18 bags per acre. That left Murali with not enough to cover the investment on the first crop, so he was banking on the second short crop - black gram.
That is the story of all the farmers who went for black gram, said M Srinivasa Rao, who cultivated eight acres of the crop. “We all used best seed. Last year, the seed had yielded seven bags per acre instead of usual four bags,” he said. Rao had his fields immediately cleared of the wasted crop and cultivated them afresh with sugarcane, a one year crop. “I am hopeful of recouping losses next year,” he said.
(Subhead) Who cares for the small farmer?
Of the 800-and-odd acres in Uppaluru village and nearby hamlets, black gram was cultivated in 600 acres. Around 70 per cent of those lands were tilled by tenant farmers, who were forced to take loans from private money lenders with no banks interested to lend them. Of the 4,700 LEC (Loan Eligibility Card) holders, only 415 availed loans.
M Chanti Babu, another farmer who too suffered cultivating black gram said they do not understand as to what went wrong. “We did what we have been doing since ages,” he said. There has been a demand from the farmers who cultivated black gram, but lost it due to viral infestation, that it is time for the State government to intervene and come to their aid.
Buoyed by the remunerative price they got last year, farmers cultivate more area with black gram this year. As against 3.91 lakh hectares in 2015-16 rabi season, 4.04 lakh hectares were cultivated for the current rabi (2016-17). In Krishna district alone, the crop was cultivated in 1,56,724 hectares.
“The viral infestation was unusual this year and when the department was appraised of the infestation, we suggested some remedies, but it has been too late for some 25,000 hectares crop in Krishna district and another 5,000 hectares in Guntur and West Godavari districts,” Agriculture department director K Dhanunjaya Reddy said.
He said agriculture experts from Pune were called in for suggesting remedial measures to ensure the viral infestation does not spread to other parts of the State. “As per those who lost the crop, we took up the matter with Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. On his directions, measures are being taken to enumerate the crop loss, there after compensation would be decided,” he explained.
