Hyderabad: Last year, the government took up an extensive campaign against cotton sowing and encouraged farmers to sow foodgrain crops after a large number of cotton farmer committed suicide owing to losses in 2014 and 2015.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao appealed to farmers last year not to sow cotton and to opt for pulses and other foodgrain crops instead.
This resulted in farmers switching over. But those who cultivated pulses and chilli last year suffered losses due to overproduction, which led to violent protests and attacks on market yards in Kham-mam and Warangal.
Farmers were arrested for the attack at the Khammam market yards. They were handcuffed by the police while being produced in court, leading to protests from farmers associations and Opposition parties.
The government remained quiet and has left the choice of crop to the farmer. The result has been a rush towards cotton on the back of profits on the crop last year. Agriculture extension officers have not guided farmers on what to sow.
Farmers associations say the government should take immediate measures to discourage cotton as sowing has not started in 30 per cent of the area.
“In 2014 and 2015, cotton farmers suffered huge losses due to a steep fall in prices and many farmers committed suicide. To prevent this, in 2016 the government took up extensive awareness program-mes against cotton. This year, there is no such intiative. The government should educate farmers to balance crop sowing as over-production of any crop would lead to price crash,” said T. Sagar, secretary, TS Rythu Sangham. While Mr Rao is talking about creating crop colonies across the state to ensure balance among all the crops, there is no attempt at ground level to achieve this objective.
