By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net,
Bhopal: With no rains and no loans this year the Vidarbha farmers in Maharashtra are facing a double whammy which has further deepened the ongoing agrarian crisis.
As monsoon has played havoc and till date five districts of Vidarbha have not received a single shower for continuous one hour resulting into the hopeless condition, now there cannot be sowing of cash crops like cotton or soybean seeds. In Vidarbha 95 per cent is dry land wherein soybean seeds, unlike cotton, germinate early – in six to seven days after sowing, but they also dry up quickly if there’s no moisture in the soil.
Now, sowing food crops like “jawar” and “bajara” is only possible. Hence, the Maharashtra state Government should promote food crop cultivation as a relief measure. This has been urged by Nagpur-based Kishor Tiwari, president of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, (VJAS), today.
VJAS in a Press release said that as banks are yet to commence disbursement of fresh loans to farmers Vidarbha cotton farmers at many places have opted for local moneylender-cum-seed-shopkeepers and dealers channel to do first and second sowing in June and first week of July. However, due to scanty rainfall and in the absence of proper irrigation facilities sowing failed to yield results. Since the ground condition in west Vidarbha, which is drought prone, is very serious the complete region is in grip of rural crisis resulting in huge despair among the three million debt-trapped mainly cotton farmers. The objective of the Central Government’s debt relief scheme has not served it’s basic purpose as the banks were officially supposed to notify the beneficiaries of the waiver by June 30. But Vidarbha’s farmers were notified only on the last day. Since the beneficiaries of the waiver were defaulters before that date, the banks till date have not given fresh crop loans to them.
As a result, many farmers have been forced to buy seeds on credit or have borrowed from the local money-lender to pay for the seeds. This year, the weather too have not been kind and the seeds bought with borrowed money are again likely to go waste.
Tiwari said that now it is clear that if the rains fail them this year then they will never be able to repay their debt.
VJAS has urged the Central Government to intervene in the matter and provide special food crop promotion relief package in west Vidarbha region to save the dying cotton farmers as more than 50 per cent area under cotton cultivation is barren after first and second sowing cotton seed has been failed.
Tiwari in a letter to the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Mamomhan Singh has requested him to provide free distribution of “jawar” and “bajara” seeds along with Rs. 2000 per acre incentive to these farmers for food crop cultivation.
Tiwari said this year chemical fertilizer shortage and much delayed monsoon has given wider scope for the state administration to promote organic farming and a chance to break mono crop culture of high risk high cost cotton cultivation. However, officers on the ground level are not keen to do so.
Hence, the Vidarbha region needs special attention along with agrarian crisis affected 41 districts of India. An integrated formula involving social engineering and sustainable farming with special promotion to rural village level employment targeted job units, proper health care and educational security to distressed farming society is needed to stop farm suicides, Tiwari added. ([email protected])