This is the time when farmers in SPSR Nellore district usually get busy preparing their land to raise the Edagaru paddy(summer) crop, the third one after kharif and rabi, taking advantage of the comfortable water levels in Somasila and Kandaleru reservoirs.
But this time around, enthusiasm is largely missing among the farmers at Padugupadu village as minimum support price(MSP) for their produce, promised by the State government, remains elusive during the rabi cropping season.
The progressive farmers in the district have the credit of getting the highest average yields both in kharif (6711 kg per hectare) and rabi (8611 kg per hectare) 2017-18.
Due to floods in several spells in river Krishna, the combined storage in the two reservoirs in the Penna basin has risen to over 150 tmcft. Though the YSR Congress Party government had assured agriculturists to ensure irrigation water to grow crops in 4.50 lakh acres during summer, a majority of the farmers may go for crop holiday going by the bad experience during winter.
Last year, during the corresponding period, paddy was raised by farmers only in 94,000 acres. The acreage will come down further, say a group of farmers in the village in Kovur mandal.
Sk Khadar Mastan, a tenant farmer who has grown paddy in six acres, is clueless on clearing the crop loan taken from a public sector bank to be eligible for interest rebate announced by the government as he had no other go but to sell his produce to a private trader for just ₹12,000 per putti( one putti is equal to 850 kg) as against the MSP rate of ₹16,660 per putti announced by the government. In the absence of Crop Cultivator Rights Card(CCRC), he could not do e-crop booking and register his name with the Rythu Bharosa Kendra(RBK) for selling his produce.
The plight of a fellow tenant farmer Dasari Venkata Ramanaiah, who cultivated paddy by taking 15 acres on lease without a written agreement, was no different. Only those farmers with a written lease agreement are eligible for all subsidies, including financial support from the government under Rythu Bharosa.
Though Surendra Reddy, a farmer with 30 acres of land, had registered his name with the RBK, he too was dissatisfied as he had to set aside 200 quintals of paddy per putti for the miller which had tied up with the RBK to purchase the produce.
Five hours power outage to mills, shortage of trucks to move the produce from farm to mills also added to the farmers woes, adds yet another farmer Y. Raghuramaiah, who has grown the crop in 9 acres of land.
But for the political rhetoric to purchase every grain with the farmer, the YSRCP Government has left the farmers in the lurch, alleges All India Kisan Sabha State unit vice-president P. Jamalaih.
Only about four lakh quintals of paddy out of the 24 lakh quintals produced during rabi had been procured by the RBKs this time while processing broken rice accounts more than 20%, adds AIKS-affiliated Tenant Farmers Association State Committee member P. Gopal Rao
Also the freshly-harvested paddy has more moisture content. Hence, additional quantity of paddy taken per Putty, a representative of Giridhar Rice mill K Srinivasa Reddy explains.
