Jagan Slams Naidu For ‘Betraying Farmers, Wrecking Agrarian Economy’
Jagan said the government had dismantled YSRCP’s free crop insurance mechanism by stopping e-crop, depriving lakhs of their rightful claims. “Of 84 lakh farmers in the state, only 18 lakh are covered now, compared with 80 lakh insured under YSRCP, which delivered ₹7,400 crore compensation,” he said.
ANANTAPUR: Former chief minister and YSRC president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy accused Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu of “betraying farmers” and presiding over a collapse of the agrarian economy.
After consoling banana farmers at Brahmanapalli in Kadapa district on Wednesday, Jagan said farmers were in such deep distress that they were unable even to recover basic cultivation costs and were leaving crops for cattle.
He alleged that since Naidu returned to power, farmers’ lives had deteriorated sharply. In the past 18 months alone, he said, farmers suffered losses from nearly 16 natural calamities—excess rains, drought, and cyclones—but the government failed to release input subsidy. Even the recent Midhili cyclone damage, he said, required ₹1,100 crore compensation but was “deliberately underestimated and denied”.
Jagan said the government had dismantled YSRCP’s free crop insurance mechanism by stopping e-crop, depriving lakhs of their rightful claims. “Of 84 lakh farmers in the state, only 18 lakh are covered now, compared with 80 lakh insured under YSRCP, which delivered ₹7,400 crore compensation,” he said.
He accused the government of pushing farmers into the black market for fertilisers, raising cultivation costs, and reducing Rythu Bharosa/Annadata payments. While farmers were promised ₹20,000 annually outside PM-Kisan, he said they received only ₹10,000 in two years against the ₹40,000 due.
He alleged that no crop—from paddy and pulses to chilli, tobacco, mango, onion, tomato, coconut or banana—was receiving remunerative prices, and that middlemen “in collusion with Naidu” were benefiting while farmers suffered.
Jagan contrasted this with the previous government’s procurement, transparent pricing through RBKs and the CM App, and interventions that ensured ₹7,746 crore worth of farmers’ produce was procured, even during the COVID crisis.
Highlighting the banana sector’s collapse, he said prices that ranged between ₹25,000 and ₹32,000 per tonne under YSRCP had plunged to under ₹2,000, leaving crops to rot. Banana exports, he noted, had risen from 25,000 tonnes to 3 lakh tonnes during his tenure, supported by special cargo trains and national awards.
He accused Naidu of diversionary politics, making hollow promises—such as onion procurement at ₹1,200 per quintal or ₹50,000 per hectare compensation—and “abandoning every assurance”.
Jagan warned that the YSRCP would launch a people’s movement if farmers continued to be neglected. He criticised the government for not clearing arrears, including ₹5,600 crore in fee reimbursement (with only ₹700 crore released), ₹2,200 crore under Vasathi Deevena, cuts in Amma Vodi, reduction of pension beneficiaries from 66 lakh to 61 lakh, and for “selling off government medical colleges”.
