Hyderabad: The Kharif crop is ready for harvest and farmers want to make money by selling the abundant harvest. Therefore, they went for an early harvest and started transporting the yield to the mills. However, a lack of coordination among officials caused delays in procurement. With no other option, farmers staged protests demanding minimum returns for their harvest.
Hundreds of farmers are forced to wait with paddy laden tractors at rice mills owing to negligence and lack of foresightedness of the authorities concerned. On one hand, millers are not ready to procure the produce and on the other hand, authorities are lax in decision making. In the meantime, unseasonal rains are damaging their produce.
There are 200 rice mills, both small and large, in Miryalaguda of Nalgonda district in Telangana. Apart from the Nalgonda district, farmers from Khammam, Warangal and Guntur districts also bring paddy to these mills. Procurement of paddy usually begins after Deepavali. Due to high groundwater availability, farmers went for early seeding this year. The harvested paddy was transported to mills before the festival.
At present, only a few mills are purchasing paddy while more and more farmers are approaching the mills with their harvest. As a result, there is a huge delay in procurement. Due to unexpected rainfall, the grains are getting discoloured. Taking undue advantage of the situation, millers are paying a lower price than usual.
In the next 10 days, 4.50 lakh acres of paddy in the Nalgonda district will be harvested. All the produce will be transported to Miryalaguda. Before the situation turns worst, the farmers are demanding that the officials take necessary precautions. Officials and police, on the other hand, are appealing that only those farmers, who have been issued the tokens should bring their produce to the mills. Millers have also made it clear that they would procure the grains from farmers, who have taken tokens.
Procurement is currently underway at 46 mills in Miryalaguda. The problem is that a large number of farmers have begun crowding outside the mills after their produce was hit by the rains. It would take two days to load the produce to the mills, said Gouru Srinivas, president of Millers Association, Miryalaguda.
Farmers across the Nalgonda district are worried about the need to expedite the procurement process of the thin grain variety. They have blocked the roads, protesting that their crop is getting damaged in the rain due to severe delay. Hundreds of vehicles were stranded on the Narketpally-Addanki highway due to the protests. Nalgonda district police have blocked paddy tractors entering Nalgonda from Suryapet at Nereducharla mandal, Chillepally. There was a hindrance to vehicle flow on Miryalaguda-Kodad highway. The officials have begun issuing tokens to the tractors and allowed them towards the mills.
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Farmers are struggling due to the lack of coordination between the police and officials of the two districts. They alleged that the officials have not responded to their repeated protests or requests. Despite having faced a similar situation last year, the farmers added, the officials have not taken any measures to prevent the fiasco this time.
For the past four days, officials have been issuing tokens at farmer venues (Rythu Vedikas) in Miryalaguda, Nereducharla and Vemulapalli to enable smooth procurement. Farmers have been waiting since early morning for their turn. The problem worsened when the officials decided to issue only 2,400 tokens in three days. Lack of basic facilities like drinking water at the venues has pushed the farmers into further trouble. Furthermore, they are worried about the rental charges of tractors.
The millers at Palakaveedu mandal headquarters have clarified that the problem arose with farmers bringing in the early harvest and that the procurement would begin from Saturday at all mills. It is evident that the situation has worsened due to a lack of coordination between authorities and police personnel of the two districts and poor assessment of the officials.
"We asked our subordinates to issue enough tokens to cover all the farmers. We have also suggested the millers go easy on the farmers. The situation should improve once the procurement begins in a day or two," said Chandrasekhar, Additional Collector (Revenue), Nalgonda district
A farmer died at the Paddy Procurement Centre of Lingampet mandal in Kamareddy district. Bheeraiah (57), a resident of Ailapur, died of a heart attack during the delay in the procurement of grain. Farmer Bheeraiah, who came to guard his heap of grains, slept there at night. He woke up in the middle of the night to attend nature's call, but he suffered a heart attack and died.
Farmers noticed his body in the morning. Beeraiah had one acre of his own farm and leased another three acres to cultivate crops. He recently completed the harvest and brought the crop to the Lingampet Procurement Centre on October 27 and was waiting for his turn when he breathed his last.
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