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Long yarn

  • 30/03/2006

Long yarn Tangled web
Vidarbha cotton farmers hit by state failure

The number of suicides by cotton farmers in Vidarbha has risen alarmingly this cotton season (see graph: Suicide spike).This is not just a consequence of increasing input costs, water scarcity and the high interest charged by s ahukars (moneylenders) . The Maharashtra government's decision to bring down its msp by withdrawing a 20 per cent premium over the national msp it used to pay and abolishing a Rs 500 advance bonus it used to dole out at the beginning of the season to buy seeds has played a major role.

Vidarbha's 11 districts produce 75 per cent of Maharashtra's cotton and almost all farmers' suicides have happened here. But its not just msp. Succeeding governments seem to be unsympathetic to the region's cotton farmers.Unlike the affluent western Maharashtra, represented by successful farmer-politicians like Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, which gets plenty of facilities by way of irrigation and credit, Vidarbha gets practically nothing (see graph: Tale of two regions), despite the fact that Vidarbha has harsher conditions mainly low soil fertility and less rain.

The figures are telling. Input costs for cotton have risen from Rs 5,000 per hectare (ha) in 1995 to Rs 10,000-12,000 now. Moreover, only 11 per cent of the cotton crop has assured irrigation in Maharashtra. Water charges are also the highest in the country. They vary from Rs 180 to Rs 1,080 per ha, depending on several variable factors. In most other cotton states, water is either free or charged nominal rates in the range of Rs 50 to Rs 200. Productivity is also a problem. Maharashtra has the highest area under cotton

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