Cotton farmers ask tough questions…

Vyas delayed selling his crop and now, in February, the only price he is getting is Rs 1,600/quintal. Ginning mills in Kanam, the hub of Central Gujarat’s cotton-producing region are overstocked, and Vyas is losing hope about a price rise.

FOR solutions, Gujarat’s cotton farmers are not turning to the government, neither are they pressuring the state to pick up their stocks. Rather, they are looking for answers as to what caused such a sharp slump in cotton prices this year, and why their smooth adoption of new technology has not translated into bigger profit margins.

‘‘We need to know about global market trends and demystify the WTO bogie,’’ says farmer leader Arvind Acharya. Adds Surendranagar farmer Venbhai Khodhabhai, ‘‘Crop yields were good, so where did the profits go?’’

It is to answer questions such as these that city-based NGO The Science Ashram (TSA) was forced to add on a session on global market trends for the farmer-scientist interfaces planned for the next three months around the state.

‘‘Our focus is freeing agri-research and technology from academia and linking it up with actual farm practices across Gujarat,’’ says TSA director Purvi Mehta-Bhatt. ‘‘But farmers are also demanding an institutional mechanism for market awareness.’’

After attending one such session, Acharya has grasped that one of the reasons for cotton prices going south—post-Diwali rates stood at Rs 2,100/quintal, down from 2003’s Rs 2,600/quintal, but higher than the current Rs 1,600/quintal—was over-production, not just in Gujarat but across the world.

‘‘The farmers are now beginning to question where they went wrong in their quest for the right prices. Awareness of the global market is increasing,’’ says Kishore Shah, adviser to the Central Gujarat Cotton Producers’ Committee and a regular participant in TSA meetings.

It was Shah who explained the overproduction-falling profits logic to the farmers at their last session. According to Central Advisory Board estimates, the estimated production for 2004-05 was 213 lakh cotton bales, up from 177 lakh bales the previour year.

Shah also informed the farmers that the low staple-quality cotton yarn that Gujarat produced was not very effective in the global market, where cheaper variations are available.

‘‘It is a complex situation. In previous sessions, most questions focused on the failure to get the right market price. But neither research institutes nor government agencies are geared up for disseminating such know-how,’’ says Mehta-Bhatt.

Apart from bringing facts, figures, reason and logic to the farmers, the fora also have to speak the farmer’s tongue. ‘‘We demand discussions on WTO policies and global market mechanisms in Gujarati, or the local dialect,’’ says Khodabhai.

Next on TSA’s agenda, says Mehta-Bhatt—an M S University botany graduate who trained in agrcicultural management in the US—are tailor-made, area-specific agricultural solutions. ‘‘We think of ourselves as a bridge between technology, agricultural research and the farmers,’’ she says.