Farmers Face Heavy Losses as Excessive Rain Damages Crops in Drought-Prone Marathwada

Pune: Excessive rainfall has damaged at least 15% crops in Maharashtra’s Marathwada region, which is otherwise drought prone, leaving farmers in the lurch. Cash crop soyabean and other pulses have started to sprout on the crops as farmers cannot harvest due to rain. Cotton, another cash crop, has turned black due to humidity.

Umesh Shinde, 27, who along with his father, uncle and cousin, owns 25 acres in Khalegaon village of Beed Taluka, has lost his entire soyabean crop, 75% of cotton and pulses like moong and tur.

Image courtesy: Umesh Shinde

Speaking to NewsClick, Shinde said, “Extreme rainfall during short duration, like throughout the night, has happened multiple times and damaged soyabean, tur and cotton. I had invested Rs 15,000 per acre for soyabean, including cost for tilling, labour charges, pesticides and fertiliser. Soyabean on all 15 acres would have been ready to be harvested. But the downpour has either damaged soybean crops or the seeds sprouted on the plants. In the same way, cotton flowers became black due to fungus.”

Shinde has helped around 600 farmers from the village, which has a population of 2,800, register complaints with the Tehsildar. He said, “100% of soyabean is damaged while 50% cotton still has hope in my village.”

RAIN-INDUCED LOSSES

T N Jagtap, Joint Director of Latur division, said, “Crops on 4.15 lakh hectares have been damaged as per our primary estimates. Total 28 lakh hectares of land has crops. Thus losses are around15%.”

Further, Dinakar Jadhav, joint director, for Aurangabad division, said, “Three districts of Marathwada--Beed, Jalna and Aurangabad--have over 16 lakh hectares of land with crops and over 2 lakh hectares of crops got damaged as per our estimates.”

Image Courtesy : Umesh Shinde

Ajit Nawale, leader of Kisan Sabha, said, “Though officials say losses are 15-20%, they might go up to 45% after farmers harvest the crop.

According to the Agriculture Department of Maharashtra, the region has over 44,87,700 lakh [A1] hectares that is cultivable. The main cash crop, soyabean, was sown in over 20 lakh ha, sugarcane in 1.7 lakh ha and cotton in 15 lakh ha, as per statistics of 2019-20. Besides, tur, moong, urad, oil seeds and other pulses are also cultivated in these lands.

“Losses are over 50% as crops are still inundated in water. This is the primary estimate of the agriculture department and the losses will go up further,” said Manik Kadam, an activist who runs campaigns creating awareness among farmers against suicides.

Arvind Ingale, a farmer from Aarvi village in Parbhani district who owns 10 acres, has a similar story of loss. He said, “I had taken a loan of Rs 50,000 from the State Bank of India for soyabean, pulses and cotton. My land is full of water now. How am I supposed to feed my family of three kids, wife and mother?”

He added, “Farmers could not earn income for Rabi season due to the lockdown because transport was not available.[A2] When rain started on time this year, we were hopeful. Initially, the soyabean seeds did not germinate. We again sowed it. But the excessive rain has crushed all our hopes.”

Image Courtesy : Umesh Shinde

“Marathwada generally receives deficit rainfall. If you see data of last 10 years, barring 2016, every year there is deficit rainfall. This year, however, there is surplus rain before monsoon ends. The rain started in June itself unlike other years. Events of extreme rain such as 100-10mm rainfall in 10-15 hours occurred multiple times, especially in September,” said DR Kailas Dakhore, agro meteorologist, Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krushi Vidyapith, Parbhani.

The region has eight districts--Latur, Aurangabad, Beed, Jalna, Parbhani, Hingoli, Osmanabad and Nanded.

Rainfall in Marathwada in Last 5 Years

FARMERS SEEK GOVT HELP

Kisan Sabha leader Nawale said the government should not only help farmers through disaster management fund, but also help fast-track crop insurance benefits for them. “Farmers in Marathwada and Vidarbha have already suffered losses because lockdown started when they were about sell cotton. Later, they somehow sowed crops by arranging loans. But excessive rainfall has damaged half the crops. The government should provide help through National disaster Management Funds. The government should also ask crop insurance companies to avail insurance amount to farmers as soon as possible.”

Image Courtesy : Umesh Shinde

He added, “I heard the state government does not have funds to give to farmers. If that is true, it is unfortunate.”

As per media reports, State Agriculture minister Dada Bhuse visited Marathwada and said that the government would decide whether to declare wet drought in the region after the ‘panchanamas’ of crops are conducted and its report comes in. He said the state government would help farmers and direct insurance companies to help them as well. He also said that the state would seek help from the central government for farmers with damaged crops.

The writer is an independent journalist.