Ranipet farmers peeved at fertilizer delay as officials prioritise Delta

R Subash, the sangam’s state youth wing president said, “though the primary agricultural cooperative banks (PACB) are to provide us with fertilizer we are put off with officials giving excuses of load delays to the district.”

Though private shops also offer fertilizer, farmers are against going to them as the latter demand that additional purchases of neem cake and other fertilizer related products also be bought with fertilizer which to the farmers is unnecessary expenditure, he added.

Another reason why farmers prefer PACB is that most of them avail various subsidies which is not possible with private shops. “At present, we need DAP urgently, complex and potash for standing crops and any delay in providing them to crops at the right time results in the yield coming down which affects farmers further,” Subash said.

What infuriates farmers is that they were denied compensation for crop loss during the recent floods as officials failed to provide correct information to the state government. “Instead of informing Chennai that the compensation was for kuruvai paddy they said it was for the late samba crop and hence we failed to get any relief said the Sangam’s district treasurer N Rajamanickam.

“While compensation was given to farmers in Delta districts, we were denied the relief and were only given Rs 6,000 worth agricultural kits,” fumed the Sangam’s Ranipet district president CS Mani.

“With farming already being a loss-making venture, the government’s wrong moves will only add to the farmers’ burden, driving them deeper into debt. An easy way would be for government to consult the Sangam members which will ensure that all farmers across the state are treated equally,” suggested Subash.