Though untimely, delayed, erratic, insufficient or excess rains have been ruining crops in the region for the last few years, farmers claim this year will see the worst crop failures in recent times. All three major Vidarbha crops, cotton, soyabean and orange, have suffered huge losses due to the truant rains.

Generally, at least one crop survives nature's vagaries so farmers get some income. But this year farm activists are claiming that farmers are doomed. To compound the woes, crops are not getting the due price.

Even rich farmers with large land holdings and irrigation facilities expect losses, which may disturb their lives for next many years. Founder member of Shetkari Sangathana and a farm activist from Wardha, Vijay Jawandhiya supports them.

"I have been in agriculture for the last 40 years. But this is the worst crop failure, with one of the lowest yields. To add to it, traders and government agencies like the Cotton Federation are not buying produce," he said.

Jawandhiya is demanding that the state government should protect cotton farmers just like it protects sugarcane growers in Western Maharashtra. It should, he feels, bring in import duty on soyabean and allow subsidy to export cotton. "If the government doesn't stand up to support farmers, the vicious circle of debt will spread further and farmers will never overcome the agrarian crisis," he told TOI.

Ram Newale raised the issue of very low minimum support price for cotton. "Vidarbha's economy depends on cotton, soyabean and orange. The whole equation has been disturbed due to low yield and low MSP. The declared MSP is Rs4,050 but in market the rate is lower than Rs3,500," he said.

A visit to Katol taluka in Nagpur district, otherwise a prosperous agriculture belt with good irrigation and orange as the major crop, showed that delayed and deficient rains have ruined everyone, from a marginal farmer with 1 to 1.5 acre to farmers with 50 or more acre land. In fact, some farmers have not even harvested soyabean. Instead, they have ploughed the crop into the land as the produce would not fetch them even the harvesting cost.

Khandala village in the taluka is known for its high output of oranges and a produce of over Rs4 crore annually. But farmers like Mohan Jogekar took the risk of sowing soyabean due to orange failure, and failed in that too.

Madhukar Khujnare said the yield had fallen to less than 30%. Shobha Khujnare said her family would be forced to beg. "We sowed 60kg seeds and did not get even a single quintal of soyabean," she said.

Vimal Chawda, an educated young farmer with irrigated land, claimed that his earnings would drop from about Rs20 lakh to Rs5 lakh. "I would survive as I have enough land and alternative sources of income. But this otherwise rich village would be completely doomed, since both orange as well as cotton and soyabean crops had failed. Power cuts added to the misery since the fields could not be watered at the right time. This year, even pest attack was very high," he said.

Onkar Charde, an MSc in mathematics, had planted groundnut along with cotton and soybean, but is expecting his earnings to drop from the annual income of Rs3 lakh to just Rs50,000. "We won't even get our investment back," he said.

Manohar Jogekar showed his pesticide purchase bills of Rs9,780, saying that his earning had fallen from Rs3 lakh to Rs50,000. Swapnil Dhote, who took soyabean in 10 acre and cotton in 30 acre, said that the yield had reduced from 7 quintals to half a quintal in cotton. "Conditions are too bad. But not a single survey has been conducted so far by government," he said.

The situation in Yavatmal too is bad. Ramkrishna Patil from Pandharkawda, who owns 50 acres and won the Krishi Bhushan award in 2000, said farmers in his belt were completely ruined. "Soyabean farmers are badly hit, as the short duration (90 day) crop is damaged completely. In cotton, we would get some yield," he said.

However, marginal farmers like Mahadev Dhepe from Umri Smarak village and Vaibhav Shedurkar from Palodi village in Darwha taluka claimed this was the worst year in the recent past.

Source - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/