With farmers expecting short supply in cottonseeds, a senior Minister in the Congress Government in Andhra Pradesh has written a letter to the Chief Minister, Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, asking him to direct seed companies to honour their commitments made to farmers.

“They have promised to deliver certain quantity of seeds and went on to collect advances. But they are now indicating that they may not honour their commitments. We should not allow this to happen,” Mr Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Minister for Information Technology Communications, said.

Advances for supply

In a letter written to the Chief Minister on Tuesday evening, Mr Lakshmaiah said seed companies collected advances for supply of seed from distributors and dealers before the commencement of season. “They collect Rs 300 a packet of 450 gm. I held a review meeting with farmers, officials of agriculture, revenue and vigilance departments in Warangal recently to take stock of the situation,” he said.

Giving a list of the companies, advances they collected and promises they made, the Minister said six major companies promised to provide 10.51 lakh packets of seed for the kharif season.

“But their supply plan indicates that they would provide only 4.39 lakh, leaving a shortfall of 6.12 lakh packets. I am told that they collected advances to the tune of Rs 26.42 crore and committed to supply 8.25 lakh packets,” the IT Minister said.

“This is the experience of just one district. The other cotton growing districts face a similar situation.

"I request you to look into this issue and take measures to ensure supply of the required seed,” he appealed to the Chief Minister.

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