TDP shirking from supplying subsidised hybrid seeds, fertilizers to farmers: YSRCP leader

The tag of “Annapurna” for Andhra Pradesh may go if natural farming was adopted on a level projected by Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu, as it was unsuited for commercial agriculture, said YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) farmers wing State president N. V.S. Nagi Reddy.

He dismissed as “far-fetched” the Chief Minister's projection at an international seminar on sustainable agriculture to facilitate switching over of 60 lakh farmers to natural farming. Switching to natural farming would be at the cost of food security for millions of people, he alleged.

He saw a ploy on the part of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government to shirk from its responsibility of providing hybrid seeds and fertilizers at a subsidised cost.

Farmers needed inputs at reasonable cost to boost productivity, he pointed out at a media conference here, adding that natural farming had been practiced in the ancient times on virgin lands especially by forest dwellers who resorted to shifting cultivation at the cost of the environment.

Underscoring the need for ensuring nutrition and food security to the growing population, he questioned the suitability of natural farming in improving farm productivity. Food security had been achieved thanks to the development of hybrid seeds by agriculture scientists and scientific agronomic practices for plant protection and growth, he explained.

‘Method unviable’

Stating that he had practiced natural farming on a 5-acre plot, he said he had cut down the practice to just 2-acre as it was “unviable” and did not contribute to an increase in productivity. Hardly a few hundred farmers practiced natural farming in the State out of sheer passion and that too for meeting their own personal nutrition needs, he added.

As six of the 13 districts were hit by severe drought under the TDP rule this year, he said, farmers were forced to resort to distress sale owing to the failure of the State government to intervene in the market when the prices of almost all the crops were below the minimum support price.

‘Farmers distressed’

The TDP government should stop diverting people's attention from its failure to come to the rescue of farmers who were struggling to cope with the ever-increasing cost of farm inputs on the one hand and inadequate price for their produce on the other, by projecting natural farming as a panacea for all ills afflicting the agriculture sector, he said.

Since the declaration of drought by the State government last month, as many as 28 farmers had ended their lives, he said, adding the State stood 28th among 29 states in farmers’ income as per a report of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.

He said the farmers in the State were in an unenvious position when compared to other States. Though the average land holding of farmers in Andhra Pradesh was 1.4 hectares as against the national average of 1.1 hectares, their monthly income was a poor ₹ 6,920 when compared to ₹8,930 of farmers at the national level.

It was far less than their counterparts in neighbouring States, he said, adding as per the report, farmers earned ₹10,687 in Karnataka a month with an average land holding 1.2 hectares, ₹9,770 in Tamil Nadu with an average land holding of 1.1 hectares and ₹7,730 in Odisha with an average land holding of 0.7 hectares.

Farmers who had taken to social forestry in Prakasam district were ruing their fate as paper mills brought down the prices of subabul and eucalyptus, dishonouring the prices fixed by the State government, said YSRCP Prakasam District president Mareddy Subba Reddy.