Why Maharashtra's cotton farmers are dying, and sugar farmers are thriving

Despite one farmer committing suicide every 30 minutes in Maharashtra's cotton-growing belt - Vidharbha, Marathwada and Khandesh - the ruling class has systematically ignored their plight.

Whereas, the sugarcane-growing farmer interests are protected by all means. The simple reason: all the state's heavyweights, including our dear union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, belong to Western Maharashtra. Even state agricultural minister Radhakrishna Vikhepatil hails from a place close to Pawar's favourite region.

Protesting farmers have started demanding a Rs6000 minimum support price for cotton as against the Centre's Rs3300 MSP per quintal (one quintal is 100 kg). Agitating farmers were compelled to come out to the streets and burn the cotton they had painstakingly cultivated and plucked after spending huge amounts on seeds, fertilizers, pesticide and labour.

Everyone would agree that farmers should get good prices for their product in tune with growing inflation and expenses. The old-fashioned rates will result in more incidents of farmer suicides and even their children will be forced to leave farming and flock to metros in search of jobs.

A comparison between the state government's proposed rates and the union agriculture ministry's sanctioned MSP for cotton and sugar will reveal the step-motherly treatment meted out to cotton farmers. In 2009, the Centre had approved Rs3,000 against the demanded Rs3,400 for cotton, while it approved Rs129 against the demanded Rs100 for sugarcane! In 2010, the state had asked for Rs3,600 for cotton and the Centre approved Rs3,000; for sugarcane, the state demanded Rs112 and the Centre approved Rs139.12. Even this year, the state demanded Rs4,285 for cotton, but got only Rs3,300, while for sugarcane Rs137 was demanded and Rs145 was approved.

Paddy- and soya-growing farmers are also treated the same way because they too do not hail from Western Maharashtra.
The above figures clearly show that Pawar, though he is the central agricultural minister, sees himself as agriculture minister for Baramati and the Sangli, Kolhapur, Satara sugar belt.

In Mahrashtra, cotton is cultivated in 40.95 lakh hectare of land and its production is just 82 lakh bells (one bell is 170 kg) while in Gujarat, cultivation in 30.23 lakh hectare yields 103 lakh bells annually. Why Gujarat is ahead on per-hectare yield is because of continuous electricity and water supply and fair government control over the black seeds and fertilizer market. But in Maharashtra, government officials and politicians are hand in glove with the traders. Therefore, not a single trader has been either penalised or put behind bars for selling spurious seeds in the black market. 

Thus, farmers demand Rs6,000 so they can at least recover their investment. In the last few years, the input cost for cotton has increased manifold. The government has also stripped all fertilizer subsidies, citing unconvincing reasons. The government has no control over the black market. Farmers are compelled to buy one bag of seed at Rs2,500 to Rs3,000 against the MRP of Rs700 to Rs900. The usual 12 to 16 hours power cuts in rural areas make it difficult to water the plant on time. That frequently ruins the crops and decreases the per-hectare yield. There is only 2% of land in Maharashtra under irrigation (and a majority is in Western Maharashtra) while it is 50% in Gujarat and 99.6% in Haryana.

This year, India's estimated cotton production is 356 lakh bells against a domestic demand of 350 lakh bells. The surplus needs to be exported immediately so farmers get good price. But the government never allows export of this surplus, so that domestic textiles mill owners, who help politicians during elections, can buy cotton at cheap rates.

If the Centre fails to increase the MSP for for cotton to R6,000 from the present Rs3,300, then it is the responsibility of state to bear the additional Rs 2,700. It will add only a Rs3,700 crore burden on the state and even this will be only 10% of the state's annual budget.

If the state cannot give this additional Rs3,700 crore to cotton growers, then the authorities should implement irrigation schemes successfully in this dry and drought-hit region. Then, farmers will not depend on rain-fed crops like cotton and soya.

They will turn to other cash and biodiversity crops that will give them good yield and return too. It will stop soil degradation. If there is continuous supply of electricity and water (irrigation), they will be financially sound, because they can cultivate a variety of crops during three different seasons. No farmer will demand waivers.