Exactly a month ago, Telangana farmer Itharaveni Rajesham succumbed to heat stroke while perched atop a small heap of 38 quintals of paddy, waiting for his turn to sell it at a government-run procurement centre in Ragampeta village, 28 km from the Karimnagar district headquarters.
The 48-year-old had been guarding the paddy harvested from his 2-acre farm for over a week before the heat wave claimed his life. Temperatures rising to 45° Celsius have been sweeping through Choppadandi mandal and other parts of Karimnagar district over the past few weeks. On that afternoon, Rajesham left home on his moped and travelled half a kilometre to reach the procurement centre on the village outskirts.
Unaware of a piece of happy news awaiting him during his uncertain wait to sell his farm produce — his daughter clearing SSC exams, the results of which were announced after he had left for the procurement centre — the farmer met a tragic end. His death left his family — wife Malleshwari, son Raju, a first-year B.Tech student, and daughter Sravanthi — in shock.
“My father wanted me to become an engineer and my sister a nurse to serve society and bring fame to the village,” says Raju, tears rolling down his cheeks. “He toiled hard in the fields to carve out a good future for us in the face of financial difficulties. He used to work as a Hamali (porter) in the lean season to supplement our family income,” he adds.
A relative recalls noticing Rajesham lying unconscious on the heap of paddy stock. Some at the procurement centre performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to revive him, but in vain. He was rushed to a local hospital, where he was declared ‘dead on arrival’.
The farmer was worried over the relatively low paddy yield this Yasangi/ Rabi season due to the scarcity of water for irrigation. “He was visibly exhausted, shuttling between his house and the procurement centre to sell his paddy for more than a week,” says Lingaiah, another relative, adding that Rajesham was struggling to surmount the crop losses incurred due to unseasonal rains over the past few years. Within a few days of Rajesham’s death, his entire common variety paddy produce was procured at the minimum support price (MSP) of ₹2,183 per quintal.
The bereaved family received ₹5 lakh claim amount under Rythu Bima, the State government’s life insurance scheme for farmers. However, the Rabi season instalment of Rythu Bharosa (previously known as Rythu Bandhu), an investment support incentive, is yet to be disbursed to the deceased farmer’s family, say official sources. Officials of the Revenue department have also sent a proposal to the government for sanctioning ₹5 lakh compensation to the family.
Procurement challenges
Rajesham is among the countless farmers in Telangana who were forced to wait for weeks to dispose of their paddy produce at the purchase centres, although procurement has been a shade better this Rabi season compared to the corresponding period last year.
According to official sources, the State Civil Supplies Corporation, the nodal agency for paddy procurement, has purchased nearly 45 lakh tonnes of paddy until May 28 this season at nearly 7,200 procurement centres, from April 1. Paddy has been cultivated on over 51.92 lakh acres this Rabi and the production is estimated to be about 1 crore tonnes. Of that, the government has planned to procure at least 75.4 lakh tonnes at MSP, leaving the rest for private purchase by traders and millers, and for self-consumption by producers. In 2022-23, the production of paddy was 65.82 lakh tonnes.
Bereaved family members of farmer Itharaveni Rajesham at their home in Ragampeta village of Telangana’s Karimnagar district.
| Photo Credit:
P. Sridhar
Many paddy farmers in the erstwhile composite Karimnagar district, the major rice producing region of Telangana, bore the brunt of the recent spell of unseasonal rain and before that, scarcity of water for irrigation. Kondaiah, a farmer hailing from Kodimyal in Jagtial district, says his harvested paddy got soaked in the mid-May rain. “My efforts to salvage the paddy saw little success as a portion of the wet grain sprouted and became useless, leading to losses,” he laments.
Even the farmers who produced super-fine varieties of paddy, such as HMT known for good grain quality, have been made to wait for procurement of their produce as this season coincided with the Lok Sabha elections.
“I have been waiting to sell my super-fine variety paddy lying at the Wyra market yard, in anticipation of remunerative price,” says Venkateshwar Rao, a farmer from Somavaram village located in the tail-end area of the Nagarjunasagar Project (NSP) Left Cana in Khammam district.
Marred by delays
Official sources maintain that every paddy grain that arrives at the procurement centres will be procured at MSP although the exercise has been hit by delay in transportation to the storage facilities and rice mills and, in some instances, due to lack of sufficient gunny sacks.
“The delay has hampered the procurement process. Many farmers in our mandal have sold their paddy to private traders at prices lower than MSP,” says a woman farmer from Choppadandi, who did not wish to be identified.
The delayed sowing of paddy in the rabi cultivation season in some parts of Peddapalli district proved dearly to hundreds of farmers as the unseasonal rains damaged paddy crops in Peddapalli, Sultanabad, Kalva Srirampur and Ramagiri mandals on May 7.
The paddy crop was damaged on more than 300 acres, affecting a little over 230 farmers in the four mandals, according to official data.
In Manthani mandal, a total of 212 paddy growers suffered losses due to crop damage in the latest spell of unseasonal rain on May 17 that damaged paddy crops on large tracts randomly interspersed with vegetable crops.
The damage to paddy crop was minimal elsewhere in the erstwhile Karimnagar district as the untimely rains lashed post-harvest season, official sources said.
A waiting game
The instances of farmers being made to wait for sourcing inputs such as seed and fertilizer for the coming Kharif season are also on the rise across the State. On May 28, police had to step in to regulate a crowd trying to buy cotton seed in Adilabad.
The ruling Congress is now at odds with the Opposition parties, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao has alleged that the Congress government in Telangana has failed to expedite Rabi paddy procurement, despite several spells of untimely rain damaging the harvested paddy in market yards, procurement centres, and fields. He says the government prioritised election activity over addressing the urgent needs of farmers.
At a press conference, he also accused the government of orchestrating a scam exceeding ₹1,000 crore in the disposal of paddy stocks from previous seasons and the purchase of fine rice (rice grain which measures less than 6 mm) for schools, hostels, and anganwadis, noting that the same four agencies secured both tenders. “These agencies, without even moving the paddy stocks, are forcing millers to buy paddy at ₹200 per quintal more than what they paid to the Civil Supplies Corporation, thus making huge profits without shedding even a drop of sweat,” he claimed.
BJP floor leader in the Assembly, A. Maheshwar Reddy has echoed similar allegations against the government.
However, Minister for Civil Supplies N. Uttam Kumar Reddy dismissed the allegations of the BRS and BJP, stating that a higher quantity of paddy has been procured this season compared to the same period last year when the BRS was in power. He also pointed out that payments to farmers are being processed more quickly than under the previous government. He accused the Opposition parties of merely resorting to mudslinging against the government.
“The farmers are indeed grappling with shortage of green manure seed (Jeeluga and Janumu), and seed of regular crops ahead of monsoon due to lack of proper planning and placement of indent for required quantities well in advance,” alleges P. Tirupathi, a farmer leader of Jagtial.
It is imperative to grow green manure crops before paddy crop to improve organic matter in the soil and enrich soil fertility. The queues outside the outlets run by primary agriculture cooperative society, be it in Jagtial or Kalleda almost in the entire district, are getting longer by the day due to short supply of the green manure seeds, he points out.
“Farmers are facing severe hardships in the seemingly never-ending queues outside the outlets amid scorching temperatures in the peak summer season, waiting to buy green manure seeds,” he rues.
With the Kharif cultivation season approaching in June, the farming community is also forced to scamper for credit for input needs. “Early disbursement of crop loans to small and medium farmers, and supply of quality seeds in adequate quantity would meet the needs of farmers for the Vanakalam (Kharif season) in view of the fast-approaching monsoon,” says B. Rambabu, a Telangana Rythu Sangham State leader from Wyra.
“It is high time the State government writes off loans up to ₹2 lakh for each farmer with outstanding dues. It should provide a bonus of ₹500 per quintal for all varieties of paddy from the ongoing Rabi procurement season itself,” he adds.
