Irked over delay in supply of groundnut seeds, farmers staged protests in Kundurpi and Bathalapalli mandals of Anantapur district on Monday morning.
Traffic was affected at the four-road junction at Kundurpi for about an hour with farmers squatting on the road. RTC buses were confined to the the bus station for more than 45 minutes as farmers placed wooden logs across the road.
Price difference
Police personnel pacified the farmers and the latter withdrew their protest following an assurance from Agriculture Department officers. Only 40% seeds have been supplied in the mandal compared to 60% overall in the district.
The onset of monsoon has brought cheer to the farmers and they are eager to sow groundnut seeds.
At Bathalapalli Crossroads, which is already narrow due to ongoing road widening works on the Anantapur-Kadiri section of Chennai highway, farmers blocked traffic on the Dharmavaram-Tadipatri section too. Bathallapalli police personnel entered the scene and cleared the traffic on both sides within 20 minutes.
As per the statistics issued by Joint Director Agriculture Habib Basha, seeds in the mandal were supplied to the tune of 80% of the demand and another 10% stocks were ready.
Mr. Basha told The Hindu that the protests were staged by some greedy farmers, who wanted to hoard the seeds as the difference in price was increasing by the day.
While the government supplies seeds at ₹42.60 per kg, in the open market, it was ₹61 per kg on June 15, when the government supply began, and on Monday, the price had shot up to ₹66.50 a kg.
