When the electricity used in agricultural irrigation areas increased by 70 percent, the producer fell into the debt swamp.
Many farmers who did not pay their bills were unable to produce. Some of them have made their debts in installments, and those who cannot install them have been sentenced to banks. Even the electricity institutions have started to receive open promissory notes from the farmer.
Electricity prices used in agricultural irrigation areas, bent farmer's waist. Electricity prices, which have been rising close to 70 percent since last year, dragged farmers into debt. When diesel, fertilizer and medicine prices were added to these, producers were sentenced to high interest loans of banks.
Describing the difficult process he experienced in Milli Gazete, farmer Çağlar Yüksel said, “It is the exorbitantly priced electricity bills we pay every month without mowing the crops we produce as producers. Many of our farmers are currently working to pay for electricity. Then he thinks of other expenses. We have to worry about paying our electricity bills before eating and drinking. There is time when most of us are unable to pay the hike to electricity. When we can't pay, our electricity is cut off. Then we pay the opening and closing price. This compels us. I had to pay about 74 thousand TL in electricity a month when our plantings were the most intense last year.”
Saying “80 percent of our farmers are victims due to electricity debt,” Osman Sayın said, “For example, I had a debt of 25 thousand TL. We went to the configuration, I try to pay it with an amount of about 5 thousand TL in a year. I have been watering for 3 days this month. 3 thousand 500 TL electricity bill came. Before doing anything, 3,500 TL invoice was issued. We also just started watering. We will carry out another 4 months of irrigation. There are even 30 thousand TL incoming, 50 thousand TL, and 70 thousand TL in this process. The product that it sells does not cover the increasing costs of the farmer. At the moment, we do not have farmers who do not owe both state and private banks. The farmers are unable to pay their debts even if they sell their assets.”
Voicing the victimization of the farmers, Niğde Chamber of Agriculture President Veli Kenar said: “As a farmer from Niğde, we had farmers who had debts before 2010. Most farmers who could not pay these debts had their electricity cut off. The sufferings of our farmers whose electricity is cut off continue today. The state has structured periodically. However, since our farmers are unable to pay these configurations, their electricity in the irrigation well is still cut off. Because the ten percent of the borrowers could not pay their debts at all, the agricultural irrigation electricity is composed of our farmers. The rest of our farmers are trying to install their debt in some way and survive.”
Farmer Ali Osman Sayın said: “As a farmer and producer, electricity prices increased this year are pushing us even more. We carry out agricultural irrigation from our water wells. As we pump water from wells in our electricity bills, they take transformer loss, loss leakage and tax from us at very high value. Our trouble starts with this. The farmer has started to water and plant their new crops. Many of our friends could not pay the incoming electricity bills with the start of October. Currently, the electrical institution is buying open promissory notes from every farmer.”