Farmers staged a demonstration in front of Prakasam Bhavan here on Monday urging the Centre to direct the NAFED to intervene in the market to check the drastic fall in the chilli price.
The farmers cutting across party lines said the NAFED should enter the market through the Marked in the State before more farmers took to the extreme step of committing suicide. The Centre should study in detail the supply-demand situation both at national and international levels and discover the future prices of commercial crops well ahead of the cropping season each year for the benefit of farmers who were experiencing fluctuating fortunes year after year switching from one crop to another, said Prakasam District Development Forum president Ch. Ranga Rao.
“Knee-jerk reaction from the governments to the market downslide be it in the case of redgram or other farm produce like tobacco, onion or chilli witnessed in the last few years, will not be any help to the debt-ridden farmers who are clueless about growing which crop and in what extent,” said All India Kisan Sabha district secretary V. Hanuma Reddy.
A majority of chilli farmers in the district had not benefited by the Fasal Bima Yojna, thanks to indifferent attitude of officials, said Congress farmers’ wing district president V. Rajagopala Reddy and demanded a compensation of ₹40,000 per acre to each chilli farmer who on an average got only six quintals of produce as against the normal 20 quintals. Prakasam district Rythu Sangam secretary D. Gopinath wanted the State government to start chilli procurement centres at Ongole and Markapur.