Hundreds of farmers under the aegis of the Communist Party of India(Marxist)-led Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangham observed a day-long fast in front of the Prakasam Bhavan here on Friday urging the State government to intervene as the prices of subabul and eucalyptus nosedived across Prakasam district.
They were upset that the paper mills refused to honour the agreement reached at the behest of the State government fixing the purchase price of eucalyptus at ₹4,400 per tonne and ₹4,200 per tonne for subabul.
Paper mills managed to procure the logs at ₹2,000-2,200 per tonne through their network of agents, bypassing the Agricultural Market Committees(AMCs), which were empowered to oversee the implementation of the agreement, they complained.
Prakasam Joint Collector S.Nagalakshmi called for a meeting with representatives of farmers and paper mills on August 2 after the farmers called on Environment Minister Sidda Raghava Rao at his residence here to press their demand.
The Minister assured the restive farmers to arrange for a meeting with Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday and facilitate convening of a high-level meeting in Amaravati to resolve the crisis.
Shift proved detrimental
All India Kisan Sabha Prakasam district secretary V. Hanuma Reddy said farmers were ruing their fate for switching over from tobacco to social forestry plantations as they were now not in a position to recover even the cost of production.
The pre-eminent position of the AMCs should be restored and all sales effected only through them, said Acharya N.G.Ranga Kisan Samastha secretary Ch.Seshaiah.
