Falling cotton, soya prices, not farm laws, worry Vidarbh farmers
Here, the farmers are concerned about prices of cotton and soyabean — the two main crops of the region. They are worried that the textile and poultry industry lobbies may soon succeed in bringing down rates of the two crops.
While cotton is used for making yarn, soyabean is also a raw material for chicken feed.
The prices of cotton, which had touched an all-time high crossing Rs8,500 a quintal, have now come down to the range of Rs7,500 to Rs8,000 a quintal. Soyabean rates too crashed from all-time high of over Rs10,000 a quintal, now settling at Rs5,600 to Rs5,700 for the better grade. After over a decade, rates of the two crops had reached a level that the farmers had always hoped for.
Gajanan Sindadwar at Yavatmal-Telangana border said that cotton rates had fallen by Rs900 touching Rs7,500 quintal. Soyabean was at Rs5,000 quintal and hoped it should be at least Rs6,000.
Former MP and Swabhimani Paksha leader Raju Shetti has already initiated an agitation seeking intervention to improve rates of soyabean. In Maharashtra, sale of farm produce is already allowed outside agriculture produce marketing committee’s (APMC) yards. The state also allows contract farming.
“There was little impact of the whole issue on the farmers here. In Maharashtra any one can get a licence and even purchase farm produce out of the APMC areas. Buying fresh vegetables doesn’t even need a licence,” said Sudhir Kothari, chairman of APMC at Hinganghat in Wardha district.
Ganesh Nanote, a cotton grower from Akola, said that the textile industry and poultry lobby are already making representations demanding measure to reduce prices of cotton and soyabean.
The farmers are at a loss due to low yield of cotton. Nitin Khadse from Yavatmal said that his primary concern was the low cotton yield.
Shetti’s party will be continuing the agitation over soyabean prices.
“Going against the very spirit of Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, the Centre imposed stock limit on soyabean. This led to a crash in rates of the produce, he said.
“We are also demanding a law making purchase at MSP mandatory. Even if the MSP is declared for a number of crops, farmers have to even settle at rates lower than that. It should be made mandatory for even private traders to buy at MSP,” he said.
Kishore Tiwari, the chairman of Vasantrao Naik Shetkari Swavlamban Mision, said the farmers crisis in Vidarbha has different dynamics. “The farm laws have already been eased in the state but it has made a little impact on farmers’ earnings,” he said.
On the other hand, consumer activist Shahid Sharif said repealing the Essential Commodiies (Amendment) Act will help in keeping the prices under control.
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