‘We are slaves to the company’

Ramakrishna Reddy cultivates maize on 2.5 acres of leased land in Vadlamanu village of Krishna district. He and eight other farmers in the village in Agiripalle mandal  in Andhra Pradesh planted a total of 30 acres of maize to sell its seeds to the Hyderabad-based IML Seeds Pvt Ltd. “We sowed in September 2016 and sold the seeds [around 80 tonnes] in March 2017. It’s been more than a year and the company still hasn’t paid the over 10 lakh rupees due to the nine of us,” says 45-year-old Ramakrishna. 

In this trade, the company gives hybrid seeds to farmers around September every year. The seed farmers grow them and give the multiplied seeds back to the company in March the following year. The company then sells these, at a profit, in the market to cultivator farmers. The seed farmers get some of their payment from the company in the forms of pesticides, insecticides and even loans at an annual interest rate of 24 to 36 per cent. The debt – loan plus interest – is deducted from the final amount the farmers receive.  

The company is supposed to make the payments by the end of March, but the money usually come through 2-3 months later. In 2017 though, IML Seeds did not pay the farmers at all.  The unpaid dues, along with prices that have not matched the rising input costs for the last few years, have pushed many maize seed farmers deeper into debt and forced some to leave agriculture. 

Pilli Srinivas, 40, one of the nine farmers of Vadlamanu village, who cultivated maize seeds for around 15 years, says, “I have a total debt of 15 lakh [from private moneylenders]. I also pay an annual lease of 15,000 rupees because I don’t own much land. So I decided to leave agriculture and work as an agricultural labourer.” Srinivas now earns a daily wage of Rs. 250-300 and hopes to pay off some of his debt by selling the half-acre he owns. 

IML Seeds Ltd however denies there is a payment problem. “This set of seeds [cultivated by the farmers] had a 'germination problem' but we will still pay them in 10 days," said Cherukuri Venkata Subba Rao, who handles the company's operations for Krishna district, when I spoke to him in May 2018. The farmers still haven’t got their money. When I phoned him again in mid-July he again said the farmers will be paid in 10 to 15 days.

“The company has been saying that they will pay us since over a year now,” says Ramakrishna. “We grew the same seeds which the company gave us. How are we responsible if their own seeds have germination problems?” 

The per-tonne rate paid by seed companies to farmers depends on the grade of the maize seed. However, the prices have not increased much since around 2002-2004 when, the farmers say, maize was first grown for its seeds in the west Krishna region of Nuzvid, Agiripalle, Chatrai and Musunuru mandals. 

"Around 4,000 farmers have cultivated maize for seed purpose over an area of 15,887 acres for 20 companies in the district in 2017-18 agricultural season," says Mohan Rao, the joint director, agriculture, of Krishna district. Maize is also grown for its seeds in West Godavari, East Godavari and Prakasam, among other districts of the state

One of the first to start cultivating maize seeds for sale in Chintalavalli village of Musunuru mandal  was Peddineni Venkata Srinivasa Rao. He owns 11 acres of land and cultivates maize on 10 acres for Bengaluru-based CP Seeds India, which has a factory in Nuzvid town. “Eight years ago [in 2010], the price per tonne was around 12,000-14000 rupees and this year the price is 16,000-18,000 rupees, while input costs have increased two and three times over,” says 54-year-old Rao.