Khammam: Chilli farmers in Khammam district lost Rs 50 crore this year with the sowing of spurious chilli seeds in thousands of the acres. The chilli plants supplied by the various persons to the farmers were not growing upto the expected level. With this, the dharnas of chilli farmers are a daily occurrence in Khammam district. In Khammam, the seed dealers were dragged out from their shops and thrashed.
The chilli varieties JCH-801 and Green Era were sown by farmers in 10 mandals. Interestingly, the two varieties and some other company seeds failed in the blossoming. Such complaints came from 1,500 farmers in Bonakal, Kamepalli, Karepalli, Khammam Rural, Konigerla, Enk-oor, Julurpad, Kallur, Tallada, Wyra, Erru-palem, Kusumanchi, Nelakondapalli, Mudi-gonda, Tirumala-yapalem and Mulaka-palli. The chilli companies earned crores of rupees by selling these spurious seeds.
Unfortunately, the farmers who bought plants from nurseries have also faced problems. The flower drop was witnessed more to these plants. It is a recent trend that many of the farmers buy and plant the saplings from nurseries.
A farmer invested Rs 15,000 per acre so far and the crop failure was in 3,750 acres in the district. The farming community sought fresh loans to raise the other crops in the rabi.
Sattupalli MLA Sandra Venkata Veeraiah said that the farmers are facing huge losses due to the spurious seeds and there is no mechanism to check it. He demanded the government pay compensation to these farmers.
