The total extent of groundnut sown in four Rayalaseema districts has come down by 1,01,437 hectares due to unremunerative prices offered to the produce and vagaries of nature, but the YSR Congress Party government was not bothered to even assess the damage caused, said TDP leaders after launching a field survey in Pattikonda Assembly constituency in Kurnool district on Tuesday.
While farmers in Anantapur, Kurnool, Chittoor and Kadapa districts had sown the crop in 7,29,377 hectares in 2020, it came down to 6,27,940 hectares in the current kharif season, said the party’s Kurnool district president Somisetty Venkateswarlu and Anantapur district president Kalava Srinivasulu, who jointly visited fields of four farmers in Jonnagiri, Pattikonda, and Maddikera.
Telugu Desam Party Pattikonda In charge officer, who accompanied the team members, said the farmers in the constituency were the worst-affected.
Narayana, a farmer in Jonnagiri and who had incurred huge losses this year, said he received no help from the government and that no agriculture department officer or village agriculture assistant visited his farm.
“My e-crop booking is not verified yet, and if the government decides to pay compensation, how can I get help?,” said the farmer, who grows castor, cotton and groundnut in 10 acres. He told the TDP team that he had lost his crop last kharif too due to excess rainfall just before harvesting. This time, it was insufficient rain that damaged his crops. Similar was the fate of another farmer, Seshagiri Naganna, in Pattikonda, whose tomatoes and groundnut crops were wasted due to lack of rain.
He lost groundnut last year and hoped that he would recover the loss this year, but he lost ₹50,000 in two acres again this time and could not retrieve even 50% of that from the sale.
