Social forestry plantations have lost favour with farmers in the drought-prone Prakasam district as the agreement between growers and paper mills brokered by the district administration has been followed more in breach.
The growers who have been traditionally growing tobacco have switched over to plantations in the 1990s as an alternative growing subabul, eucalyptus and casuarina. The extent went up to over 2.50 lakh acres of wasteland thanks to encouragement given by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.
The Agricultural Market Committees (AMCs) had chipped in facilitating decent returns for the growers, revising the support price every two years or so.
But the AMCs have been bypassed in the recent years by the paper mills which have started procuring the logs directly through brokers at a lower price, lamented a group of farmers coming under the Ongole AMC, who had started uprooting the trees in Chimakurthi, Aadanki, Tangutur, N.G.Padu and other areas, he said.
Though the purchase price was revised to Rs. 4,600 per tonne for subabul and Rs. 4,800 per tonne of eucalyptus and casuarina in September 2015, the paper mills had not been honouring the same, complained Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangam State secretary K.V.V. Prasad in a conversation with The Hindu .
About four lakh tonnes of logs worth Rs. 178.18 crore were sold during 2015-16 as against 2.30 lakh tonne valued at Rs. 103.74 crore during 2014-15 and 1.60 lakh tonnes worth Rs. 59.40 crore during 2013-14, giving an indication of the losing interest of farmers in growing social forestry plantations.
“It is high time a commodity Board was set up on the lines of the Tobacco Board to act as a moderator and ensure a fair price to the ryots,” said Congress party farmers wing district president Rajagopala Reddy. “'The returns are not even Rs. 30,000 per acre for the growers after nurturing the plantations for four to five years,” complained M. Srinivasa Rao, a farmer in Chimakurthi, clearing his land of eucalyptus stumps to get ready for growing regular crops in kharif.
Demanding a ban on imported pulp, noted farmer leader Ch.Ranga Rao said while the demand for paper went up regularly, the farmers were not offered a remunerative price.
The government should step in to arrest the alarming trend which meant import of pulpwood from abroad or cutting forests adversely impacting the environment, said Acharya N.G. Ranga Kisan Sabha secretary Ch. Seshaiah.
The AMCs should be provided with a revolving fund for market intervention, said APRS district secretary B. Hanuma Reddy. The plantations should be covered under the improved crop insurance scheme to offset the loss to growers on account of forest fires, he added.
