Journalism of Courage
In Baramati,the division is stark the green zone,or about 40 per cent of land where irrigation-intensive crops like sugarcane,grapes and cotton are grown,and the dry zone,which has been facing acute water shortage for the past 15 years with no permanent solution to the problem in sight. The drought situation here this year has worsened to the extent that farmers in the dry zone,whose primary source of income is milk,have had to sell their Jersey cows because there is little water or fodder.
The dry zone includes villages like Supe,Jalgaon and Undwadi and farmers have been supplying milk to the Baramati Taluka Dudh Utpadak Sangh (Baramati Taluka Co-operative Milk Producers Association) for generations. They have faced water shortage earlier,too,but with this years drought,they have unable to provide drinking water to the cattle. All the villages in the dry zone are supplied water through tankers once in four to five days.
Dnyandeo Tambe,sarpanch of Pansarewadi,said average milk production in Pansarewadi village has declined to 3,000 litres from 4,500 litres. This is one of the 48 villages in Supa pargana one of the worst affected areas of Baramatis dry zone.
The smallest dairy farmer in this area owns five Jersey cows. However,this drought has changed all equations, said Sudakshana Jagtap from Jagtapwadi,who had to sell two of the seven Jersey cows she had. Jagtap said apart from the water shortage,unavailability of fodder is also a problem. I had to invest Rs 10,000 to buy fodder for my cows at the rate of Rs 20 per bundle,which I would have grown myself as I do during the monsoons, she said.
Even as milk production by individual dairy farmers has gone down by at least 50 per cent,Vitthal Deokate,chairman of the milk producers association,denied that the overall milk supply to the association has dwindled. We get 1.5-2 lakh litres of milk per day. On Friday,we received 1.67 lakh litres of milk. If there was no water shortage,the overall supply would touched 2 lakh litres. However,there is no major drop in the supply, Deokate said.
There are two reasons for the supply remaining unaffected. Farmers reduce their household consumption of milk to ensure that supply to the association is not affected. This is because we pay cash every 15 day the milk is supplied. Secondly,as the sugarcane rates have lowered,some other farmers have moved to dairy farming, said Sunil Ital,general manager of the Association.
This milk is supplied to three dairies Dynamix (55,000 litres),Mahananda (35,000 litres) and Vaishnovdevi (35,000) for packaging and manufacture of milk products,while about 30,000 to 40,000 is sold by the Association under the brand name Nandan.
However,considering acute water shortage,the association is now planning to set up fodder depots in villages. We shall procure dry fodder from three sugar factories in Baramati Malegaon,Someshwar and Chhatrapati Cooperative sugar factories. Farmers will be given 13 kg fodder per adult animal and 6.5 kg fodder per younger animal at the rate of Rs 144 per kg. Of this,the farmer will have to pay only 25 per cent while the rest will be paid by the government, said Deokate.
