Adilabad seems to be holding onto to its position among the top ranking districts in the country in terms of cotton farmer suicides what with 40 crisis tormented farmers ending lives within a span of 100 days, starting June 24 this year.
The three lakh small and marginal farmers with dry land holdings between two and five acres in this district, depend upon agricultural borrowings for personal and family expenditure in the absence of even subsistence income from agriculture operations.
“One of the ways to ease the agrarian crisis is to wean them away from cotton by enhancing the scale of finance for other crops,” suggests B. Goverdhan Reddy, farmer leader and secretary in the State unit of Telangana Rashtra Samiti. “Cultivation of food crops on a commercial scale, for example, can be a viable alternative,” he adds.
The scale of finance for cotton is Rs. 24,000 per acre for un-irrigated crop while for red gram, black gram and green gram it is Rs. 11,000, Rs. 9,500 and Rs. 9,750 per acre. “The cost of production of cotton is a minimum of Rs. 20,000 per acre and the same for pulses is about Rs. 8,000,” says retired Assistant Director of Agriculture C. Narsingu.
“If the cultivation of the latter is improved by using modern methods, the yields can be increased to 5 to 6 quintals per acre which will almost be on a par with cotton and the economics will work out fine for the farmers. The pulses command a price of Rs. 4,500 per quintal while cotton is likely to fetch a price of around Rs. 4,000 per quintal,” he points out. Facing Combating the cotton blow
The scale of finance is fixed every year by the District Level Technical Committee (DLTC) based on the cost of production and the minimum support price of a given variety of produce. “The DLTC can instead take into consideration the chances of repayment before deciding upon, or to enhance the scale of finance for crops,” Mr. Reddy opines.
* Adilabad district has around 3 lakh small and marginal farmers and 80 per cent of cultivate cotton.
* The income graph of almost all the small and marginal farmers is perennially in the negative.
* There were 40 suicides of cotton farmers since June 24 and 75 since January this year besides the 64 in the second half of 2013.
*Borrowings from banks and private sources materialise in June-July every year and a good portion of the money is spent on consumption.
*Scale of finance from banks for cotton is Rs. 24,000 per acre for un-irrigated crop while that for redgram, blackgram and greengram is Rs. 11,000, Rs. 9,500 and Rs. 9,750 per acre.
*Cost of production for cotton is Rs. 20,000 per acre and that for pulses is about Rs. 8,000 per acre.
* The average yield of cotton in dry lands is about 6 quintals and that of the pulses is about 4 quintals.
*Minimum support price for cotton is Rs. 4,050 and pulses command a market price of Rs. 4,500 per quintal on an average.
