Palm Oil Farmers Seek Help With MSP
Pithapuram (East Godavari District): East Godavari District Oil Palm Farmers' Welfare Association representatives met Leader of Opposition in Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly and YSR Congress Party President YS Jagan Mohan Reddy while he was on his mass outreach programme, Praja Sankalpa Yatra in the district on Sunday and poured out their woes.
The farmers said they were suffering a loss of Rs 140 crores every year because lack of government support with respect to getting the minimum support price (MSP) for their produce.
The association representatives met YS Jagan to discuss their problems and also requested him to bail them out of this situation. Later speaking to media here on Sunday, they said around 70 per cent of palm oil farming was done in AP. Out of the 35,000 hectares of land, around 10,000 hectares was used for palm oil farming. They pointed out that around 14 lakh tonnes of palm oil was manufactured in the state and out of this most of it came from West and East Godavari districts.
The farmers said that the pricing of the oil was decided once in a month by AP Oil Fed factory based on the oil recovery, but when compared to Telangana, the pricing was lower by two per cent. This was resulting in loss of Rs 140 crores every year. Telangana showed 18.43% of oil recovery while in AP it was just 16.40%. This had led to a loss of Rs 1000 per tonne oil, and in three years with changes in the recovery percentage, AP had lost Rs 300 crores, they explained.
In East Godavari district, Kirlampudi, Partipadu and Eleshwaram mandals palm oil farming was being done under AP Oil Fed. He lamented that despite numerous requests put forward to the government, nothing had come of it. They requested YS Jagan to establish Oil Fed factories as well as help the palm oil farmers as soon as YSRCP comes to power.
