Subabul, eucalyptus growers decry slash in support price

Khammam: The subabul and eucalyptus farmers launched a protest on Monday seeking minimum support price for their crop. The protestors blocked the lorries heading towards the ITC office. It may be recalled that the farmers have been protesting for the last few days and have also locked the office of ITC a few days ago.

Similarly, the farmers also planned a protest by submitting massive number of nominations for the Khammam Parliamentary constituency, but later backed out after meeting the district representatives.

The eucalyptus and subabul cultivation in the erstwhile district has grown increasingly since 2013-14 due to ITC and other industries promoting its cultivation. At present, 40,000 farmers are cultivating the crop over an area of 1.20 lakh acres.

In 2014, the ITC acquired approximate 100 lorries load per day by paying Rs 4,200 per tonne for subabul and Rs 5,000 per tonne of eucalyptus.

Farmers alleged that ITC paper industry had reduced the purchasing price of subabul to around 3,000 to 3,500 and the price of eucalyptus to around 3,500 to 4,000 per tonne.

Farmers also alleged that ITC didn't increase the quantity of purchase on par with the increased production in the district. They demanded the company to pay Rs 7,000 per tonne of subabul.