CHENNAI: While the farmers are disappointed by the crop loan waiver structure announced by the state government, their worries have been compounded further by the fertiliser price hike. They have demanded that the government initiate steps to control the prices and ease the mounting burden.
“When the input cost increases, the farmers' production cost would also apparently increase and getting a profit beating all these odds would be very minimal,” said PR Pandian, president of the Coordination Committee of All Farmers Association.
He said that the farmers have already been affected by the production cost and as per the scale of finance recommendation, the farmers have to spend Rs 38,300 per acre.
Against this scenario, the fertiliser prices were hiked by the Union government, which is yet another blow to the farming community. They said that the farmers widely use the fertilisers like potash, complex fertiliser, sulphate and factamfos, and the price hike on these fertilisers would result in double the production cost, and so they demanded to withdraw the hike with immediate effect.
He said that the NPK has been increased to Rs 2,150 per bag from 1,750, while Complex fertiliser has been increased from Rs 2,200 to Rs 2,450 and Potash from 1,975 to 2,250.
“Thus, major inputs have increased all of a sudden, and we are in confusion whether to go ahead with the cultivation, and it is time that the state government insists on the Centre to control the fertiliser prices,” Pandian added.