Missing Healing Touch forcing Maharashtra farmers to kill-themselves -Task Force urged for PM Intervention

Missing Healing Touch forcing Maharashtra farmers to kill-themselves -Task Force urged for PM Intervention   

Dated 31st March 2018 

As all flagship programs started by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi  to curb agrarian crisis  to address the core issues related to credit flow ,crop pattern shifting to national demand ,input @ output cost regulations ,proper market intervention to double the income of farming community has failed to give significant impact to halt farm suicide saga in the dying field  of Maharashtra  as the number of agriculturists committing suicide in the state continue to rise, according to official data.

According to the Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavlamban Mission (VNSSM), a state government initiative to combat agrarian distress, 221 farmers committed suicide between January and mid-March in Marathwada alone. The first two weeks of March saw 66 farmers taking their lives in the crisis-prone region, according to data put out by Kishor Tiwari, Chairman, VNSSM.

Data available for the whole of Maharashtra indicates that 435 farmers committed suicide in January and February this year as against 414 cases of suicides in the same period last year.The increased number of suicides in the month of March comes after Maharashtra Govt. announced compensation for cotton farmers who lost their crops to the pink bollworm attacks.

Kishor Tiwari urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his urgent intervention as all  executives responsible for implementing PM's  flagship programs related to credit flow ,crop pattern shifting to national demand ,input @ output cost regulations ,proper market intervention has been intentionally failed  to perform their duties resulting the recent farmers suicides .

According to Kishor Tiwari ,even state govt. has given mega farm loan waiver that will cover 90 % debt trapped distressed farmers in the month June 2017 till date bankers have not started giving fresh crop loan to dying farmers thanks to hostile farm credit policy of Nabard more over the state government has so far failed to ensure that farmers are paid the fair and remunerative price for cotton and toor despite policy announcements to that effect.

The slashed pulses rates are forcing farmers of the state to sell their produce below the minimum support prices (MSP). Tiwari wrote to Mahrashatra CM Devendra Fadnavis informing him about the effect of the same on farmers,failed to impact get requisite relief resulting distress sale as Soyabean has been sold at Rs 2,700 per quintal against the MSP of Rs 3,050 in the open market, while tur dal has been sold at Rs 4,100 per quintal against the MSP of Rs 5,450 and chana dal has been sold at Rs 3,500 per quintal against the MSP of Rs 4,400. ,"urgin PM to have urgent intervention .

He recalled , Prime Minister Narendra Modi  about his  promise of  giving input cost plus 50% profit to farmers but on the other hand, farm produces are getting sold below the MSP. "The depreciation of costs will result in agrarian crisis leading to more farmers suicides in Vidharbha and Marathwada," Tiwari added,

He said that out of 38.86 lakh tonne of soyabean, the government was able to buy only 26,000 tonnes. "Same is the case with tur dal where out of 4.46 lakh productions of tur dal, only 20% was bought by the government. Chana's total production has been expected at 20 lakh tonne, whereas the government has purchased only three lakh tonne chana so far. Therefore, this year farmers are facing a huge price crisis," added Tiwari.

He further said that because of these losses, the government was unable to get the credit of historical loan waiver scheme. "Government should immediately begin its procurement scheme or it should try to pay the differences to farmers in order to prevent financial losses. The error in the system has to be addressed," Tiwari asked PM .

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