Khammam: Pest attack shatters all hopes of chilli farmers

Khammam: Earlier it was unseasonal rains that affected the crop and then came the pest attack that destroyed everything for farmers who had expected huge returns from high yields of hot red chilli this season.

The pest attack damaged the chilli crop completely, driving many farmers to commit suicide due to heavy loss.

The farmers in the district regularly cultivate paddy, cotton and chilli. The farmers are very interested to cultivating chilli crops as they get good yields as the land is suitable for this crop. According to records, chilli is cultivated in nearly 3,58,557 acres in the State. As many as 40,000 farmers cultivate chilli in 1,03,021 acres in Khammam district alone.

But this season was not good for the chilli farmers. Nearly 90 per cent of the crop was damaged due to the pest attack. It is the time of harvest but the farmers removing the damaged crops. The farmers weep while removing the crops and they express their pains on heavy loss of their crops. They appealed to the Government give financial aid for the crop damage.

Due to the damage to the crop, four farmers in the district committed suicide in last 30 days. Farmers P Venkata Ramaiah( 40), resident of Balapet village under the Tallada mandal, a tribal farmer V Pullu ( 58) of Karepally mandal, M Srnivas Rao (51) from Tallada and N Nageswara Rao (60) committed suicide by consuming pesticides last month.

P Uday Kumar, the son of farmer Ramaiah, said that his father died due to loss of their chill crops. He said, they had four acres of land including the land on rent and invested around Rs 5 lakh by taking loan for cultivating chili crop in this season.

All the chill crop of four acres was damage in the pest attack and it was of no use. It was a heavy loss and it pained his father that he could not return the borrowed money. He suffered from depression and committed suicide by hanging on November 22.

Bonthu Rambabu, a farmer in Wyra, said that nearly 90,000 acres chilli crop damaged due to pest infects in the district.

Every farmer invested Rs 1 lakh per acre and but his is not getting the desired yield due the pest in this season. He demanded to government to give compensation of Rs1 lakh per acre to every farmer.

He demanded government to make financial aid to the victims of farmers who committed suicide due to loss of their crops.

BJP Kisan Morcha State president Kondapalli Sridhar Reddy said that the TRS government failed to implement the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) in the State.

If the government had implemented the scheme in the State the farmers would have not faced such as situation. He demanded the government to immediately implement the scheme for the benefit of farmers. He appealed to the officials to do enumeration of crop loss immediately so that they could get financial help.