BRS demands white paper on seed availability for Khariff

Addressing a news conference along with Anil Jadhav, MLA and Johnson Naik, BRS leader at Telangana Bhavan, he said the farmers were made to stand up in serpentine queues waiting for their turn just to buy one or two packets of cotton seeds.

Hyderabad: Former Minister Jogu Ramanna on Thursday demanded that the government come out with a white paper on district wise availability of seeds for the ensuing kharif.

Addressing a news conference along with Anil Jadhav, MLA and Johnson Naik, BRS leader at Telangana Bhavan, he said the farmers were made to stand up in serpentine queues waiting for their turn just to buy one or two packets of cotton seeds.

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He said the seed scarcity had become a common feature all over the state ever since the Congress Party came to power in December last. It is exposing the failure of not only the Minister for Agriculture but the government as a whole, he said.

Farmers standing in queue lines to purchase seeds was unusual in the state for the past one decade.

The Government had promised enhanced crop investment assistance under the Rythu Bharosha in July. Any assistance to the farmers well before the onset of monsoon would help them keep away from the commission agents and money lenders to meet their crop investment needs. Delayed assistance would not benefit the farmers any way, he said.

Over 250 farmers had committed suicide in the state during the past six months because of the neglect the community was subjected to by the Congress government. He said farmers were gearing up to raise cotton in over four lakh acres during the Khariff season in the erstwhile Adilabad district. Many of them were finding it tough to get the genuine cotton seed in the districts.