Cow slaughter ban leading to economic burden on Maharashtra farmers: AAP

Farmers, already reeling due to crop failure and farm loans, are now forced to bear the additional burden of unproductive cattle, Aam Aadmi Party said on Thursday against the backdrop of ban on cow slaughter in Maharashtra.

"Farmers have complained that unproductive cattle are a huge economic burden on them at a time when they themselves are being forced to lead a hand to mouth existence. The cost of rearing such cattle is nearly Rs 200 per day which farmers just cannot afford".

"The government has to make arrangements for fodder for these animals, or else farmers will be forced to sell off these cattle in distress sales due to disastrous economic consequences to them. Sadly, it has already begun to happen in some parts of the state", the AAP Maharashtra Convenor Subhash Ware said in a statement.

Presently, AAP's Maharashtra unit is on a mass contact programme across the state which began on May 17 and would conclude on May 24.

"Normally, we ask farmers not to be dependent solely on farm incomes and also engaged in allied occupations like animal husbandry. However, we were surprised to find farmers complaining about the economic unviability of rearing milch cattle," Raju Bhise, AAP Maharashtra's co-convenor in Hingoli district's Wakhori village, said in the statement.