Hyderabad: Farmers growing chickpea in Jainath mandal of Adilabad district protested by holding a sit-in on the highway on Tuesday, April 21, demanding that the state government procure the entire crop they produced in their mandal.

The farmers, who united under an all-party Joint Action Committee, said they were worried since the chickpea procurement centre that was set up in the Jainath agricultural market yard on March 25 had only procured around 24,000 quintal of produce till now, leaving around 85,000 quintal with them.

Lingareddy, a leader of the farmers’ JAC, told the media that chickpea was produced in 12,400 acre in 18 gram panchayats of Jainath mandal, but only produce from six gram panchayats has been procured till date.

“The government says that the quota for procurement has reached its limit. With the uncertain weather conditions and a lack of storage facilities in the farmers’ houses, we are all worried about what to do with the rest of the produce,” he said.

He said that the farmers have submitted representations to the District Collector, Additional Collector, the Divisional Manager of Telangana Markfed and also BC Welfare Minister Ponnam Prabhakar, Adilabad MLA Payal Shankar and Adilabad MP G Nagesh, but there has been no procurement.

“The Markfed DM assured us that the entire produce will be procured over the next four days. The last date for procurement was April 30. If it is not done, we are going to launch a major farmers’ agitation in several forms,” he warned.

He also urged the district Superintendent of Police to consider the farmers’ agitation in a humanitarian way and understand the problems they face. During the protest, the police had taken the farmers into custody and released them later.