Farmers’ associations plan round-table meet on July 28 to discuss aqua crisis

Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangham and Andhra Pradesh Tenant Farmers Association demanded urgent intervention of the government to address the financial crisis faced by hydro farmers and announced that a roundtable meeting will be held in Vijayawada on July 28 to discuss measures to protect the sector.

In a joint statement on Thursday, Sangham State president G. Eswaraiah and the association’s State general secretary P. Jamalaiah said the meeting will develop a strategy and put pressure on the government to resolve the industry’s problems.

MSP wanted

The organizations have requested the government to fix a minimum support price of ₹300 per kg for 100 shrimps and ensure that traders supply shrimps at the declared rate. They also demanded immediate rollback of the increase in feed prices, alleging that the companies had increased farmers’ losses by increasing the prices from ₹10,000 to ₹16,000 per tonne.

Leaders accused seafood traders of forming a cartel to suppress shrimp prices and deprive farmers of fair returns. They also called on the government to stop the sale of substandard shrimp seeds and medicines and take measures to control diseases such as ‘white gut’ and ‘vibrio’, which they said were causing heavy losses.

According to them, shrimp farming is spread over nearly six lakh acres in nine districts of Andhra Pradesh, involves around two lakh farmers and supports the livelihood of 15-20 lakh people while also earning significant foreign exchange.

They alleged that both the Central and State governments were neglecting the problems of the sector and urged aqua farmers, experts and other stakeholders to participate in the roundtable.