Nizamabad: Rising fuel prices crippling farmers

Nizamabad: The rising prices of petrol and diesel is having a severe impact on the agriculture sector in Nizamabad district with the rental prices of tractors and harvesting machines have shot up.

This has come as a major setback to the farmers of Nizamabad who were moving towards mechanised cultivation. Over 70 per cent of the population derive their livelihood from agriculture and its allied sectors.

As the petrol and diesel prices have been increasing every day, the investment costs are also going up. It is estimated that the additional burden on the farmers was about Rs 2,600 per acre. Nizamabad district has 2,38,432 farmers with over 5 lakh acres of cultivable land.

The total number of tractors used for cultivation in the district is about 7,000, while the number of trailers is about 500 and the number of paddy harvesting machines is about 600. In addition, there are up to 321 blade tractors. Farmers use Taiwanese and power sprayers for pesticide spraying. There are about 11,000 sprayers in the district.

The rent for a normal cutting machine was Rs 1,800 per hour and Rs 2,800 per hour for a machine called track. The rice harvesting machine rentals have gone up by Rs 300 per hour due to rising fuel prices. Rent of harvesters has increased from about Rs 650 to Rs 960 per acre. Compared to last year, the price of diesel has gone up by Rs 35. The farmer who harvests soybean and paddy crops now has to bear an additional burden of over Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,000 per acre per year. In case of those who cultivate other crops, the additional burden is Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,500.