Vidarbha farmers reeling under drought-hit starvation
NAGPUR: Even as only a handful of villages have been declared drought-hit in Vidarbha, the region’s farmers are staring at a major crop failure, says Kishore Tiwari, who now heads the Vasantrao Naik Shetkari Swalamban Mission (VNSSM). Tiwari is the first farm activist to be appointed as VNSSM director, since the post has been traditionally held by an IAS officer. VNSSM works to provide solutions to farmers’ problems.
Based on a survey of 1,100 villages and review meets with agriculture department officials, Tiwari, in findings submitted recently, says that both cotton and soyabean output is expected to come down drastically this year. “Earlier, there were hopes of a better cotton crop this year, but rains in September changed the situation. Apart from dry spell, the temperature was also exceptionally high in September, which damaged cotton plants at many places,” he said.
Soyabean crop has been damaged by white mosaic pest, apart from less rains hampering the output. Tiwari claimed that farmers in Vidarbha, especially those without any irrigation facility, may not harvest more than 2-3 quintals of cotton and soyabean each, he said.
“Considering the major crisis ahead, the government should come up with some financial incentive for Vidarbha farmers. Out of 14,000 villages in Maharashtra declared as drought-hit, not more than 250 odd are from Vidarbha. Although there may not be water shortage in Vidarbha, crop losses are expected to hit farmers hard,” he said.
Farmers in Vidarbha have to be weaned away from growing traditional crops like cotton and soybean, which have proven to be a loss making proposition over the years, he added. They need to be shifted to food crops, however, government must also provide financial support to compensate initial losses as market rates of food crops are low as compared to cotton and soyabean, he said.
