Farmers angry as official endorsement made necessary to buy seeds in Jagitial

On Tuesday, police had to use force to control the angry farmers, as the seed sellers limited sale of cotton seeds to two packets per person leading to arguments and police intervention.

Hyderabad: The predicament of the farmers continues to worsen with the government machinery turning a Nelson’s eye to their problems in procuring seeds, as an artificial scarcity seems to have been created by unscrupulous traders across all districts of Telangana. Peculiarly, farmers are now asked to get endorsement from agriculture department officials to buy seeds in Jagitial district.

Farmers in many districts were seen queuing up in front of seeds seller shops, a sight which was not seen for the last ten years. At many places farmers were keeping their belongings like footwear or towes in queues as they are unable to face the oppressive heat. On Tuesday, police had to use force to control the angry farmers, as the seed sellers limited sale of cotton seeds to two packets per person leading to arguments and police intervention.

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On Wednesday too, similar scenes were witnessed in Medak, Sangareddy, Jagitial, Adialbad and other districts too. In Jagitial district, farmers were keeping their pattadar passbooks in the queue to reserve their places for buying green manure seeds (Jeeluga and Janumu). Farmers are facing severe hardships at distribution centers due to the shortfall of green manure seed in the state.

At the Agro Rythu Seva Kendram in Jagtial town, farmers begain lining up from early morning on Wednesday as there was a shortage of seed. For the first time, agriculture officials asked farmers to get approval (signature) from agriculture extension officer (AEO) if they wanted to buy seed bags.

Coming down heavily on agriculture officials, farmers opined that Jagtial officials have introduced the new system of getting approval (signatures) from AEO to give seed. Earlier, there was no such condition. How could they bring AEO signatures as they do not know where the office was located? they questioned.

Though they were waiting at the center since 6 am without food, they did not get seeds even by noon. Many farmers wondered as to what was the government doing while farmers were facing troubles for seed. “We elected Congress government with an expectation that it would do good things to the farming community. However, we are proved wrong” one of the farmers asserted.