The Telangana State Authorised Federation of Emu Farmers has urged the State government to come to the rescue of the debt-ridden emu farmers.
In a memorandum addressed to Minister for Agriculture Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, the Federation vice-president B. Hari Babu said that emu farmers were reeling under a heavy debt burden after suffering huge losses in emu farming owing to lack of marketing and processing facilities. Many farmers ventured into emu farming by availing loans from NABARD and pooling in the requisite financial resources from other sources after the Central government promoted it in a big way a few years ago, he said.
He pointed out that the enthusiastic farmers had subsequently landed in a debt trap after suffering huge losses in emu farming in the absence of proper support mechanism for marketing emu meat and other by-products.