Chilli farmers of the Telugu States have demanded that the respective governments provide minimum support price for their produce.
The farmers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh wanted the two governments to take steps to provide adequate storage space as it would go a long way in storing their harvested crop and prevent distress sale. The demand comes in the light of significant fall in the prices of chilli that dropped from ₹12,000 a quintal last season to less than ₹4,000 now and the farmers wanted the government to announce minimum support of at least ₹7,500 a quintal so that they could at least recover their investment.
“Unable to bear costs that don’t add up to the price, my brother razed more than five acre perfectly good chilli crop to the ground by employing a harvester,” says Srinivas Reddy, a farmer from Mogullapalle mandal in Warangal district adding he still had 300 bags of chilli for want of buyers.
Mr. Srinivas Reddy was among the group of farmers who petitioned Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh as also the State agriculture minister under the aegis of the Federation of All India Farmer Associations (FAIFA) seeking MSP for chilli. The appeal appears to have fallen on deaf ears in the two States as There was no response from the governments so far, the farmers alleged.
A majority of farmers were lament ing that the suggestion from the government’s advice to opt for alternative crop had led them astray as they switched to chilli after being discouraged from going in for cotton transplantation, on the pretext that there was poor demand for cotton in international and domestic markets. Coupled with this was the over production resulting in a glut in the market and subsequently the crash of prices.
“Farmers who never grew chilli were also convinced to opt for it owing to the high prices of the previous year,” says V. Venkateswarlu from Polavaram mandal in West Godavari district. Farmers associations were urged the government to take steps to take support from the Spices Board in ensure export of the produce and provide the necessary infrastructure to farmers, besides putting in place a system to keep them posted about the prices of commodities on a real time basis.
