ADILABAD/SANGAREDDY: After a gap of nearly 10 years, farmers, facing a shortage of cotton and other seeds, were seen standing in queues in Adilabad and Andole on Tuesday.
Farmers arrived at seed-selling agencies early in the morning in Adilabad and stood in lines. Lathi-wielding police were seen controlling the ryots in Adilabad. Although there were allegations that the police caned the tillers, the police have denied this. The farmers reported a shortage of RCH 659 cotton seeds.
Bhumanna and Ramu, farmers from Bheempur mandal, said they arrived at the seed shop at 7 am and waited until the afternoon without any food or water in the queue under the hot sun at 43°C.
They also mentioned that agriculture officials issued licences to fertiliser shops at the mandal level, but there were no seed stocks at these shops. If seeds were available locally, farmers wouldn’t need to come to Adilabad. Farmers from Bheempur, Tamsi, Talmadugu, Jainath, Bela and Adilabad rural mandals visited the district headquarters for seeds.
Despite standing in line for several hours, farmers did not get the required quantity of seeds. They were supplied only two seed packets, and only after providing their Aadhaar card numbers. Agriculture officials said that around 11 lakh packets of cotton seeds are required in the district, with about eight lakh packets available. They explained that they had requested 1.2 lakh packets of RCH 659 seeds, out of which 45,000 packets were available, and 17,000 packets were disbursed on Tuesday.
With an estimated cropped area of 5.87 lakh acres, cotton cultivation is expected to cover 4.10 lakh acres in the Adilabad district. District agriculture officer Pullaiah, while verifying the stock, said that all types of brands were available in the market and there was no need for farmers to panic.
Officials noted that, unlike last year, this year the demand for the RCH 659 variety was high in six to seven mandals. They are currently in discussions with seed companies to provide sufficient seeds to the farmers and are monitoring checkposts to ensure that seeds available in the state are not transported to Maharashtra.
Long queues in Andole
In Pulkal mandal in Andole, farmers placed passbooks and stones in queue lines, waiting for their turn to receive Jeeluga seeds (Dhaincha seeds), which are used for preparing green manure.
Sangareddy district officials said they allocated 600 quintals of Jeeluga seeds to Pulkal mandal. Of this, 380 quintals are currently available, with the remaining seeds to be made available in the next two days, the officials said.
KTR condemns ‘lathi charge’
BRS working president KT Rama Rao condemned the ‘lathi charge’ on farmers in Adilabad in a statement. He demanded an apology from the government for the attack on farmers. “It is shameful that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy is busy with election campaigns in other states and visits to New Delhi while farmers are being attacked in the state. It is undeniable administrative failure that the state has plunged into an agricultural crisis in just five months,” Rama Rao said, demanding action against officials involved in the ‘lathi charge’ on farmers.
