Marathwada farmers need immediate financial assistance to offset their losses due to heavy rains
Sadly enough what should be the biggest talking point and cause of concern is not even news. The rise in farmer suicide has been alarming, to say the least. 600 people have committed suicide this year alone in Marathwada region of Maharashtra so far. Last year 805 people had taken their lives as they felt they would not be repay the debt that they had secured mostly from rural money lenders. The story is repeated this year. More than eight lakh hectares of crop in the aforesaid region have been either completely damaged or very little left of it. The agriculture in the region by and large remains rain-fed and around two third of the people depend upon agriculture and allied activities. It happens to be a cotton-growing region that has been severely impacted by climate change. Cotton needs a good amount of inputs whose costs have risen in the recent past while the market forces have kept the selling price almost static. The biggest reason for suicide is that most of them have to resort to taking a loan from local moneylenders rather than banks. Taking a loan from a local moneylender has its own perils; farmers are often humiliated and even threatened if they fail to pay the loan on time.
The erratic rains play havoc in the cotton belt and this year is no different. The heavy monsoon has destroyed standing crops of Paddy, corn, soybean, cotton, pigeon peas, and banana, fueling the fears that many more farmers might take the extreme step. In this situation, government intervention is called for to ease the burden on the farmers. An immediate relief package must be announced for the Marathwada region and money must be transferred through direct benefit transfers (DBT). In the long run, however, a more concerted approach must be framed so that the repeated collapse of the agriculture sector does not take place. Climate change is a reality and the Marathwada region is a living testimony to that. Farmers will have to diversify and move away from crops such as BT cotton and sugarcane which need an enormous amount of water and resources to grow. The monsoon failure devastates the farmers. Moving to crops such as millets and legumes or oilseeds could benefit the farmers immensely and save lives. The Prime Minister had promised to double farm incomes by 2022. Now is the time to redeem the pledge, at least partially by paying attention to the plight of farmers, 30 of whom commit suicide every day!