Win some, lose all: Vidarbha farmers saved money by avoiding social functions in COVID-19 and invested it in kharif crops, only to lose it all to unseasonal rain

This kharif season, Vidarbha in Maharashtra saw a jump in cotton and maize cultivation. Farmers invested their COVID-19 savings, hoping for handsome returns. But unseasonal rains have washed their hopes away.

Saurabh Katkurwar
| Updated: October 28th, 2020

Kaushal Rathore from Tiwasa village of Yavatmal lost the cotton crop on her 1.6ha land. Pic: Saurabh Katkurwar

It has been a bittersweet six months for cotton farmer Kaushal Rathore from Tiwasa village of Yavatmal district in Maharashtra. Her village, 685 kilometres from Mumbai, lies in Vidarbha region which is also known as the farmers’ suicide belt of India. This year alone, Yavatmal district has reported at least 127 farmer suicide cases between January and June. 

The initial months of the nationwide lockdown and the COVID-19 restrictions were worrying to Rathore too. But in time, the 52-year-old was pleasantly surprised to find that cutting down on her social obligations (summers are the wedding season in Maharashtra), due to the pandemic, meant she found herself with a stash of money that she would never have otherwise had. The lockdown had turned out to be a blessing in disguise. 

“When the lockdown was announced I was worried about how to arrange money for farming activities and the next crop cycle,” Rathore, who owns 1.6 hectares of land, told Gaon Connection. “Due to corona restrictions, all social functions and ceremonies were cancelled and I saved a good amount of money that would have otherwise gone into social obligations. And this money took care of my initial investment on the hybrid cotton seeds, chemical fertilisers and pesticides,” she said. The added bonus was that due to the lockdown, her sons, who are daily wagers, were home and she did not have to hire outside labour to weed, plough and sow her land that is about a kilometre away from her small, two-roomed home.

However, her excitement was short lived. If COVID-19 unexpectedly helped her save money, unseasonal and extended rains this year washed away all her savings and her standing cotton crop, leaving her facing losses of around a lakh rupees. “I was happy that I could look forward to the government’s minimum support price of anything between five thousand five hundred to five thousand eight hundred rupees a quintal for my entire crop,” she said. 

Damaged cotton flowers in Yavatmal, Maharashtra. Pic: Saurabh Katkurwar

If things had gone as planned for Rathore, she would have harvested about seven to eight quintals per acre of her crop, that is about 16 quintals in all.  But not any more. Now, she may not get more than Rs 2,000- 2,500 per quintal for an approximate output of three to six quintals. 

Like Rathore, there are a large number of farmers in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, who have lost their crops to the unseasonal heavy rainfall in the state. These farmers had cut corners and saved money as social functions and marriages were called off or kept strictly private with limited guest lists due to the ongoing pandemic. They invested the saved money in their kharif crops and have lost it all. 

“Every farmer family must have saved at least twenty five to thirty thousand rupees during the lockdown as they did not have to travel, buy new clothes and spend on gifts. I took out a small loan this year, since I had good savings,” Pandurang Jadhav, farmer from Akola Bazar village in Yavatmal, who has four acres (1.6 hectares) of land, told Gaon Connection.

On his farmland, he had planted cotton, hoping to finally make some profit this year. But, like Rathore, his dreams have ended up in a soggy mess as unseasonal rains lashed Maharashtra in September and October months. 

Already at least 127 cases of farm suicides have been reported from Yavatmal district in Vidarbha in just the first six months of the year. Almost every day of May (28 farmer suicides) and June (27 farmer suicides) months, a farmer has ended his/her life in Yavatmal alone.  

Unseasonal and extended rains have destroyed standing cotton crop in Vidarbha. Pic: Saurabh Katkurwar

Water-logged plans

This year, the sowing of cotton in Vidarbha went up by 106 per cent of the annual average as many farmers like Rathore, decided to invest in the cash crop. There are 11 districts in the Vidarbha region and cotton is among the major crops in seven of them. Out of around 9.5 lakh hectares of the cultivable land in Yavatmal, cotton was sown on 4.65 hectares of land this kharif season. 

Apart from cotton, the official statistics issued by Maharashtra’s agriculture department show farmers have shown an inclination to grow maize as well. The total area under maize cultivation has increased by a whopping 326 per cent in the eastern Vidarbha and by 142 per cent in western Vidarbha as compared to last year. Farmers had hoped for a better remuneration this year, but their hopes were washed away by the unseasonal rains.

The unseasonal rains in late September, extending into October month, just a little before the harvesting caused the infestation of thrips and bollworm and the dreams and aspirations of the cotton farmers are a wet mess.

 “It is tough and horrific to see all the hard work and investment going down to the drain,”  Lalsingh Ajmerkar, farmer and social worker, based in Yavatmal city, told Gaon Connection

According to Lalsingh Ajmerkar (in white), farmer and social worker based in Yavatmal, farmers have suffered huge losses. Pic: Saurabh Katkurwar

“I was shattered when I saw the damaged cotton crop. The once blooming, big cotton flowers had turned black. There were insects on the flowers. I can’t expect even two thousand rupees in the open market,” Rathore said with tears in her eyes. She has to now sell her damaged cotton crop at whatever price she gets in the open market and is completely dependent on government assistance to offset the losses. In the meanwhile she and her sons will go back to doing menial jobs to make ends meet. 

Like Rathore, Harijan Bawne also decided to reap the benefits of the lockdown, and use readily available labour to grow cotton on his two-hectare land in Chandrapur’s Kolara village that is on the periphery of the Tadoba Andhari National Park. 

With the lockdown, many Kolara inhabitants who work as forest guides, safari vehicle drivers, waiters or helpers in the private resorts near the national park, found themselves without jobs, and turned to agriculture labour as a result.  Bawne took advantage of the situation and decided to cultivate cotton in his two hectares of land along with paddy as now, he could easily arrange a workforce to protect crops from wild animals.

“Wild animals such as wild boars, sambhar, spotted deer and blue bull would routinely damage my crops,” Bawne told Gaon Connection. But as he had not travelled anywhere nor had any other extra expenses, he had enough to hire help. “So I too went for cotton cultivation, along with soybean and paddy this year,” he said, but the rains played spoilsport.  

Harijan Bawne planted cotton on his two-hectare land in Chandrapur’s Kolara village. He lost his crop to unseasonal rains. Pic: Saurabh Katkurwar

Relief package

According to Navnath Kolapkar, agriculture superintendent of Yavatmal, his department is assessing the claims of heavy damage to the cotton and other crops. “We have begun surveying the farms to assess the level of damages to the crops due to the rains,” Kolapkar told Gaon Connection.  

“The government has announced the compensation package for rain-hit farmers. The compensation amount would be Rs 10,000 per hectare for the unirrigated, rainfed crop while Rs 25,000 per hectare would be given to horticulture crops,” Dadaji Bhuse, agriculture minister of Maharashtra, told Gaon Connection. “We have relaxed the norms to ensure maximum farmers, who are distressed, get compensation. Our aim is to ensure the money reaches the farmers before Diwali,” he added.    

But not all farmers are reassured by the promise of government compensation. “The cotton crop is damaged significantly and both quantity and quality have come down,” Vinod Chavan, a farmer from Arjuna village, Yavatmal, who has 10 acres of land, told Gaon Connection. “Besides, the productivity of the otherwise resilient soybean crop has also reduced. The output has reduced to just one or one-and-a-half quintal per acre as against the seven to eight quintal per acre in normal situations. I doubt the government assistance would be enough to compensate for entire losses,” he added. 

It is going to be a gloomy Diwali for the farmers of Vidarbha.