Vidarbha staring at worst drought

YAVATMAL (Wardha): Vidarbha is staring at the worst ever drought this year, with an unprecedented crop failure and steep decline in Rabi crop acreage due to depleted water table. Adding to the woes of farmers is the global economic meltdown and uncertainty in local markets over the prices of commodities, like cotton and soybean.

“We’ve suffered bumper losses this year,” says Mohan Mamidwar, a farmer and political activist in Pandharkwda, Yavatmal. “Everything has been put on the hold for now,” he says, “including marriages or plans to buy new farming equipment.”
The 50-year-old is reluctant to even talk about the crop situation, as it “opens up the wounds”. Kharif crop has failed, Rabi crop is set to be doomed, inflation has wreaked havoc in villages, farm wages have risen, and intensive use of chemicals coupled with adverse agro-climatic conditions has belted the soil health.

An average farmer has suffered loss of between Rs2,000 and Rs7,000 per acre in cotton and soybean, according to a number of farm experts. “People are waiting to die,” warns Nitin Khadse, a farmer in Yavatmal’s Jalka village. About 900 farmers have committed suicide in Vidarbha so far in 2008.

Delayed and scanty rains failed first two sowings in Kharif, which meant a loss of Rs2,000 per acre.

Now the crop is done in by a combination of factor: erratic rainfall, substandard seeds, pest attacks and micronutrient deficiency in soil among others.  Adds Kishor Tiwari of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti in Pandharkawda: “Talks of death (read suicide) are not new to this cotton belt; but the ease at which farmers are speaking about it this time in the year sounds disturbing”.