Deadlock between ryots, paper mills persists

A meeting, convened by the Prakasam district administration on Tuesday to ensure implementation of the agreement reached between the paper mills and social forestry planters, ended amid noisy protests by farmers.

Joint Collector Hari Jawaharlal, chairing the meeting, urged the representatives of the paper mills to honour the agreement reached at the intervention of State Agriculture Minister P.Pulla Rao.

Farmers staged a noisy protest when representatives of paper mills expressed their inability to purchase the logs from farmers at the prices fixed by the government as they were not in a position to break even. The Joint Collector closed the meeting after assuring the farmers to draw the attention of higher officials to their woes. Rythu Sangam Secretary D. Gopinath complained that though the paper mills had agreed to pay Rs. 4,600 per tonne for subabul and Rs. 4,800 per tonne of eucalyptus and casuarina, they were offered only Rs. 3,700 per tonne for subabul and Rs. 2,500 per tonne for eucalyptus on an average.

TDP Kandukur Assembly constituency in-charge Divi Sivaram said he himself had a bitter experience as a paper mill offered only Rs. 2,200 per tonne for eucalyptus marketed by him.

The growers who have been traditionally growing cotton and tobacco switched over to social forestry plantations. The acreage went up to over 2.50 lakh acres with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development promoting the plantations. Now the acreage had fallen to 1.50 lakh acres.

AMCs bypassed

The marketing of the logs went on well till the Agricultural Market Committees (AMCs) acted as facilitators and reviewing of support price every two years. The trouble for farmers started when the paper mills bypassed the AMCs and made purchases through their agents.