Vexed social forestry planters in Prakasam district seek government intervention

The drastic dip in prices of subabul and eucalyptus logs in the market due to the brokering by local paper mills syndicate needs to be urgently addressed, they say

Social forestry planters pouring out their woes to a delegation from Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangam, at Nippatlapadu, near Chimakurthy in Prakasam district on Thursday. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Social forestry planters, who had been struggling to get a fair price for the subabul and eucalyptus logs for a long time, had a ray of hope when a noted integrated pulp, paper and paper board Mill from Erode in Tamil Nadu came to buy the logs for an attractive price in Chimakurthy of the drought-prone Prakasam district.

However, their happiness was short-lived as local brokers, who have tie-ups with some paper mills in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, prevented them from moving the logs by truck to Pallipalayam in Erode.

A group of farmers poured out their woes to a delegation of Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangam (APRS) leaders who visited the social forestry plantations in and around Chimakurthy on Thursday.

‘’We backed the ruling YSR Congress Party in 2019 going by its promise to ensure a remunerative price of ₹5,000 per tonne to the logs. After coming to power, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has been indifferent to our plight, and as a result, the price has plummeted to ₹1,000 per tonne,” said Muvva Malakondaiah, a social forestry planter.

The previous Telugu Desam Party Government had brokered an agreement with the paper mill representatives and arrived at a price of ₹4000 per tonne for subabul and ₹4,200 per tonne for eucalyptus, he recalled.

There had been a dip in the price of logs during the YSRCP regime as it failed to intervene, complained another farmer Muvva Mahendra.

The brokers of the local paper mills were not allowing the farmers to sell their produce to Tamil Nadu-based paper mills, they alleged.

The farmers who have been traditionally growing, among other crops, tobacco, red gram and Bengal gram, have switched over to social forestry plantations in the 1990s and growing subabul, eucalyptus and casuarina in a big way.

The extent went up to over 2.50 lakh acres, thanks to the support extended by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.

The Agricultural Market Committees (AMCs) regulated the trade in logs ensuring the farmers got a remunerative price. But the AMCs have been bypassed in recent years by the paper mills, which have started procuring the logs directly through brokers at a lower price, explained APRS Prakasam district general secretary Pamidi Venkat Rao.

The network of brokers of local paper mills put paid to the farmers’ hopes of a fair price for their produce, said APRS District vice-president Bezawada Srinivasa Rao.

This was despite the increase in demand for paper and paper products. The extent of land coming under social forestry had dipped to less than one lakh acres at a time when the import of wood pulp had to be discouraged, as also deforestation.

‘’It is high time the pre-eminent place of AMCs restored by the YSRCP government and revolving fund provided to them for the farmers to get a remunerative price for the logs,” they added.