Boya Rajeshwari (extreme right) with her daughters at her mother's house in Penchikalapadu village of Ghattu mandal in Jogulamba Gadwal district.
Hyderabad: Debt has been used as an age-old modus operandi by the wealthy and powerful to take away the lands from the farmers. The money lenders use several ways to push the farmers into a debt spiral. With the interest on the debt, compounding their problems to a stage of becoming bad debt, the farmers ultimately get dispossessed of their lands.
The case of the cotton seed farmers in Jogulamba Gadwal district is just one of the vicious ways in which seed organisers (middlemen), mostly hailing from one politically powerful community, have been turning agricultural land owners into farm labourers in their own lands.
Boya Rajeshwari, a resident of Penchikalapadu village of Ghattu mandal in Jogulabda Gadwal district, is a single mother of four daughters and a son. She and her husband Boya Bajari, alias Bajaranna, used to cultivate seed cotton (breeding and producing cotton seeds for seed companies) for 12 years, till Bajaranna died of electrocution on December 17, 2016. She was five months pregnant when he passed away.
As her daughters were just toddlers then, she stopped cottonseed farming for 2 years. When she resumed it, a person named T Venkatramulu, a seed organiser who used to provide them the certified seed from the seed companies, went to her field and claimed that her husband had mortgaged 4 acres of land with him for Rs 30,000 before his death.
It was a double-shock for Rajeshwari, as they had produced 2.5 quintal cotton seed valued at Rs 1.5 lakh before Bajari’s death, which was procured by Venkatramulu who neither paid them, nor did he issue any receipt for the sale.
“Whenever I asked him for money he used to tell me not to be worried, and that he would never do injustice to a woman. But he got the 4 acres registered without my knowledge, claiming that my husband gave his signatures on the promissory note,” she told Siasat.com.
Her misery didn’t stop there. Though she is presently in possession of the land on the ground, whenever she gives the land on lease, Venkatramulu has been collecting the rent, and that he only receives the financiat benefit of Rythu Bharosa, previously Rythu Bandhu in Telangana.
“After my husband died, I approached the Pedda Reddy and the Chinna Reddy (the landlord family in her village) seeking their help, but nobody helped resolve my issue. A local reporter and Baswaraj informed the organiser to take away the land lease amount from the tenant farmers even last year,” she told Siasat.com.
Apart from these 4 acres, Rajeshwari had to sell away 3 acres of land to repay Rs 24 lakh debt after her husband’s demise. She is now left with only 2 acres of land being mutated from her father-in-law Boya Chinna Thimmanna’s name to hers, ten years after his death.
She went to the revenue officials to reclaim her land from Venkatramulu during the revenue meetings held as part of Bhu Bharathi grievance redressal programme, but she was told that both the parties had to be present to get the matter resolved, but he wouldn’t come. That is where her land issue stands.
Since her hut made of mud walls and thatched roof collapsed, she has been living with her mother Boya Bommanelli in a two-room house along with her children. She applied for the Indiramma housing scheme, but couldn’t figure in the approved list of beneficiaries.
Rajeshwari’s elder daughter Nagaveni was married off at a very young age; her second daughter Nandini discontinued education after Class 5; her third daughter Renamma who has been suffering from locomotor disability since her birth and discontinued education after Class 7; and her fourth daughter Janeshwari has never gone to school, and has been assisting her grand mother in rearing her cattle. The only one going to school is Suri Babu, who was in her womb when her husband died. He is a very intelligent child studying in Class 1.
There are hundreds, if not thousands in Jogulamba Gadwal district, who have lost their lands in this way over the last four decades, rendering generations landless.
There are 40 cotton seed companies which run their operations through 40 seed organisers (mostly from the Reddy community), to engage around 40,000 farmer households in the district, to breed and produce cotton seed, exclusively to be sold farmers cultivating commercial cotton across the country.
These organisers have a vast network of sub-organisers in the villages to do their leg-work- of dealing with the farmers with regard to providing hand loans, seeds, fertilisers, and making payments.
In July, the farmers are given male and female cotton seeds to breed and produce male cotton seeds which are used in commercial cotton cultivation..
The crop is harvested in November and December, and the companies make half the payment to the organisers. After collection, cotton is sent to the the jinning mills (largely owned by these very organisers), where the cotton is separated from from the seed.
By March, the companies certify whether the lot of seeds from a particular farmer have passed, or failed. Based on that, the companies make the payment to the organisers. This is where the scope for breeding fraudulent practices exists.
As the farmers don’t have any direct contact with the companies, they have been left in the mercy of the sub-organisers and the organisers to receive their payments.
For decades, farmers never had the guts to even question, if they were told by the organisers that their lot of seeds had failed. However, in the last few years, there has been growing awareness among the farmers, largely because of these farmers getting organised under the banner of Nadigadda Hakkula Porata Samithi (NHPS), which has been working on the issues of the cotton seed farmers. However, the problems persist.
Erra Budda Narasimhulu (35), a farmer from Penchikalapadu village has been growing seed cotton for the past 15 years in an acre of land which he owns. He had taken hand loan of Rs 1 lakh on 2 percent interest from the sub-organiser in his village last year.
He engaged two workers specialised in manual pollination of cotton for Rs 50,000 for two months, and incurred Rs 50,000 on ploughing and pesticides. For miscellaneous and running expenditure like food for the workers and his family, he borrowed Rs 30,000 from other sources.
He produced 5 quintal cotton seed (at Rs 55,000 per quintal) and 2 quintal cotton (at Rs 10,000 per quintal). He should have ideally made Rs 2,40,000.
To his shock, he was informed that his seeds upon plantation, had shown germination percentage of 87. His organiser refuses to pay him now. When Narasimhulu asked for his seeds to be returned to him, he was told that he would receive them in powdered form after 3 years.
He lost his investment, and will now have to pay his organiser principal plus interest on the loan he took.
Narasimhulu, father of three daughters and two sons, is going from pillar to post, seeking justice.
“Before they used to pay for lots getting a germination percentage of 64 and 65 also. But this year, seed companies are not accepting even if the lot has 84 or 85 germination percentage,” he tells Siasat.com.
“It is from their certified seed using which I produced cotton seed. Now, if a small portion of those seeds fails to germinate, how can I be made responsible? In that case, even the seeds supplied by the companies failed to germinate in our land. Shouldn’t they be held responsible,” he asks.
While this was the case of a lot which had allegedly failed, the case of Kuruva Nagaraju (26), resident of Uligepalli village in Maldakal mandal is equally concerning.
Without taking a hand loan from the organiser, Nagaraju produced 12 quintal cotton seed last year. As per the receipt, he was supposed to receive Rs 6,60,550 from the organiser, out of which only Rs 2 lakh was paid to him, that too last month. He has been pleading with his sub-organiser to pay the rest of Rs 4,65,550, so that he could repay Rs 9 lakh, which he incurred in clearing the rocks and making his land cultivable this year.
His sub-organiser keeps telling him to come the next day, and the day after, but doesn’t pay what is due.
“The sub-organiser paid Rs 560 per kg cotton seed to others, but he paid Rs 10 less to me. That way I lost Rs 12,000,” he tells Siasat.com.
He feels that his payment is being delayed only because he isn’t cultivating cotton seed this year.
There are many cases where the organisers may give seed of one particular company to the farmers, but would sell it to a different company.
“The sub-organisers and the organisers do this when they are lured with a higher price by a different company. But if the farmer sells a small portion of the produce locally, cases are filed against the farmer,” says Bucchibabu, district convener of NHPS.
During the interaction of Siasat.com with multiple debt-ridden cotton seed farmers, they stated that getting hand loan swiftly and upfront from the organisers has been the main reason why they preferred cotton seed farming to other crops.
Bucchibabu tells Siasat.com that if the farmers cultivate cotton seed in just an acre it will be slightly profitable, but it becomes a losing proposition if it is grown in a large area, as more labour need to be engaged then, which be burdensome for the farmer.
According to Dr M Padmaiah, former principal scientist of the Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research, (IIOR), who also hails from the Pamaluru region, there are various reasons for Gadwal to be the chosen location for cotton seed breeding by the companies.
He tells Siasat.com that the black soils of Gadwal are highly fertile, there is availability of trained labour in the neighbouring Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh for cotton breeding, and the farmers are mostly engaged in cultivating cotton seed on their own.
“There are also many settlers from Guntur and Nellore in this region, who are educated farmers. The condition for isolating the crop is good, and the risk for damage because of monkeys and wild animals is less when compared to other areas. It also borders Karnataka and AP, making it advantageous for transport,” he observes.
While the cotton seed farming is profitable for companies and their network of sub-organisers, this farming has bred not only cotton seed, but also child labour and child marriages.
Because of cotton seed farming being highly labour intensive and dependent on skilled labour demanding high remuneration, the farmers in Gadwal region prefer engaging their own children in July and August every year, when the male and female plants mature, and crossing is done manually by these children.
“While the entire state has vacations in the summer, the children in this region take vacations in July and August as well, and even the school managements unofficially allow them to be absent from the school. The schools, the district administration, and even the law enforcement officials understand that the families of farmers will run into losses, if they are not allowed to work during this period. This is why even we chose not touch upon those issues ,” Bucchibabu tells Siasat.com.
This kind of child labour results in children going out-of-school, and girls getting married before they turn 18.
The impact of these evils can be seen in Ghattu and Ieeja mandals being the most backward in the entire country in terms of literacy and education, an alarming issue continuously being raised by NGOs and rights activists for decades.
Even the NGOs working on these social evils have been asked to shift their bases from Gadwal to elsewhere and other projects, according to Bucchibabu.
Bucchibabu alleges that these 40 organisers have made thousands of crores each in the last few decades, by indulging in such fraudulent practices.
“You go to any village or in Gadwal town, if you see a luxurious multi-storey building, in all probability it belongs to an organiser. There are many villages where they have transferred hundreds of acres from small and marginal farmers into the names of their relatives and binamis,” he alleges.
He claims that the syndicate of organisers (Reddys) is so strong, that they will ensure that the political power in Gadwal remains with one community, and more particularly, with one family.
“During the elections these seed organisers and sub-organisers become vote organisers and take the entire responsibility of how money is distributed to these 40,000 cotton seed farmer households, most of whom owe money to them. “If any candidate who is a threat to their business emerges politically, they will promote another face from the same community, not to help them win, but to split the votes so that a Reddy retains power. This was done in the 2023 assembly elections too,” he underlines.
NHPS has been working under the leadership of G Ranjith Kumar and his team of young activists for the past eight years, bringing awareness among the cotton seed farmers, organising them, and representing their issues on a case-by-case basis.
Today, the office of NHPS in Gadwal town has become a go-to place for the distressed farmers affected by the fraudulent practices of the organisers.
As a tit-for-tat, the seed companies went on to declare that this year they wouldn’t procure seed cotton, claiming that there is enough stock left with them to be sold.
While the idea may sound as a relief for the farmers for a change, it is even more torturous, as the organisers will reach their door-steps, demanding them to repay their debts.
“If the debt reaches Rs 3 lakh, the organisers will get the farmers’ lands registered in their names. If they don’t repay the debt, they will either take ownership of those lands, or will sell it to someone else. After deduction of the debt amount through sale of the land, if there is anything remaining, they will give to the farmers. That is how the land changes hands,” several farmers informed Siasat.com.
Last month, hundreds of cotton seed farmers protested at the district collectorate, demanding the administration to resolve their issues like the payment for their last year’s produce, and to ensure procurement of cotton seed by companies this year.
The Telangana State Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Commission visited Gadwal last month and held talks with the farmers, organisers, representatives of the seed companies, and the district administration. The Commission did issue speaking orders, followed by the collector giving directions to the organisers and the companies to clear their dues.
However, little is being followed on the ground.
“It is Rs 1,500 crore business every year. Still payments to the tune of Rs 700 crore to farmers are pending since last year. Even when chief minister Revanth Reddy was a ZPTC member in the distant past, when the farmers held a highway blockade. He too sat with the farmers. It is not that he doesn’t know the issues of the cotton seed farmers,” Bucchibabu pointed out.
This post was last modified on August 13, 2025 1:35 am