Crisis-hit Vidarbha is wary of private traders
YAVATMAL: The Vidarbha region has been in the news for ignominious reasons for decades. The region’s farmers, predominantly cotton growers, have remained in distress, and many of them have been driven to commit suicide, essentially due to non-remunerative income for their produce. But the locals in the epicentre of country’s farmer suicides are oblivious to the provisions of the new farm laws which have triggered massive protests in the national Capital for over two months.
Dabhadi in crisis-ridden Yavatmal district is one such typical dry land village where 18 farmers have died by suicide in the past few years after being unable to bear the perils of perennial losses either due to the vagaries of nature, pricing or policy paradigms.
Former sarpanch Santosh Take said farmers must get remunerative prices for their produce. “We have both the open market and mandi but farmers hardly get the MSP (minimum support price) as private parties purchase the produce from the needy farmers at throwaway prices before the government comes out with MSP. This must stop,” he said.
Though the farmers of the region are not agitating fiercely, they claim to be unhappy with the government over the prevailing prices of the produce in the market, the approach of the banks and the government’s attitude during a natural calamity. Farmers at Dabhadi are so neck-deep worried about earning a living that they feel the new contentious farm laws are not worth their attention.
The reforms give farmers the option of selling outside the mandi system. Farmers at Vidarbha are mainly concerned that this will eventually lead to the end of wholesale markets and guaranteed prices, leaving them with no backup. If they are not satisfied with the price offered by a private buyer, they cannot return to the mandi or use it as a bargaining chip during negotiations, said former Shetkari Sanghatana chief Vijay Jawandhia from Wardha, adding that the contentious reforms will loosen rules around the sale, pricing and storage of farm produce, which have protected India’s farmers from an unfettered free market for decades.
Meanwhile Kishore Tiwari, the chairman of state-run Agriculture Mission and a staunch Shiv Sena supporter, said, “In Maharashtra and particularly at Vidarbha, we have private mandis and farmers are allowed to sell outside. But are they getting the remunerative prices for their produce?” he asked and insisted on a law for minimum guarantee price.
The working president of Maharashtra Congress and former minister Shivajirao Moghe batted for a law on MSP, so that farmers have a sense of security. “The partial corporate farming and private trading of agriculture produce in Maharashtra totally failed and hence, the government should refrain from making a law in this regard,” he said.