This year, in addition to a serious rain deficit in Vidarbha, the cotton crop was subject to an unprecedented attack of the pink bollworm
More than 30,000 farmers from all over Maharashtra, on a ‘long march’ sicnce March 5 from Nashik, an agricultural powerhouse 170 km north of Mumbai, will reach the state’s legislative Assembly on Monday.
Leaders in the protest rally allege their demands for clearing farmers’ balance sheets, ensuring remunerative prices for crops, and implementing the Forest Rights Act for the benefit of scheduled tribes have not been done entirely. An 8 per cent contraction in agriculture (worse, the crop sub-sector contracted 14 per cent), according to the latest economic survey by the state, worsens the situation.
The western state received 84 per cent of the average rainfall during the June to October period in the 2017 season, with regional variations. The deficit in the drought-prone Vidarbha region was above 20 per cent. On top of that, increased pest attacks affected standing cotton crops, according to the economic survey. The state witnessed record foodgrain and cotton production in 2016-17, registering 22 per cent growth in the agriculture sector, followed by a contraction in the current year.
The pattern resembles the one in 2013-14 and 2014-15, when agriculture sector growth of 12.3 per cent was followed by a contraction of 10.7 per cent in the latter year.
The central government's resolution on doubling farmers' incomes requires 10 per cent consistent growth in the agriculture sector of major agrarian states, according to its own report. In addition, leaders of the rally allege, lending to the farm sector (both kharif and rabi) in the state has gone down from Rs 430 billion in 2016-17 to Rs 220 billion in 2017-18.
“Banks refrained from giving loans to farmers this season due to poor implementation of the loan waiver scheme. As a result, farmers had little money to sow and cultivate,” Raju Shetti, Member of Parliament and a farmer leader from southern Maharashtra, who opted out of the National Democratic Alliance in the middle of its term, told Business Standard.
Of the Rs 340-billion loan waiver package announced by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in June 2017, only Rs 138 billion was disbursed till March 6, 2017, according to the Budget. The scheme, known as the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Shetkari Sanman Yojana, has reached 3.6 million farmers against the intended 8.9 million.
Minister of state for agriculture Sadabhau Khot did not confirm the numbers but attributed the potential shortfall to political vendetta by opposition parties, which control most cooperative banks in the state.
“Maharashtra’s loan waiver scheme has given the maximum return to the eligible farmer among all states that have waived loans. We have taken utmost care that nationalised banks lend to the farm sector,” Khot told Business Standard.
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