Suicides take their toll, cotton fields shrinking in Vidarbha

Under severe flak for its failure to prevent suicides, the government had been appealing to farmers to go for crops other than cotton. As part of its programme to help increase productivity, the government had also decided to boost Bt cotton.

Following up on the Andhra Pradesh government order asking seed companies to sell the 450 gm packets at Rs 750 instead of Rs 1,600, and the subsequent refusal of the Supreme Court to entertain the Monsanto plea against the AP government’s order, the Maharashtra government has also thrown in its hat. Last week, it also issued the Rs 750 diktat.

‘‘This will not only help farmers to go in for more Bt sowing, but would also help prevent fake Bt in the market,’’ said Maharashtra State Seeds Corporation (Mahabeej) Manager Sanjay Raut.

The Bt area is, thus, all set to double this year, figures released by the state government reveal. The government is to release about 50 lakh packets of Bt seeds, enough to cover 9.7 lakh hectares of the total 26 lakh hectares expected under cotton in the state this year. Last year, it was 5 lakh hectares. In 2004-05, the figure for the entire state was just 1.56 lakh hectares.

As for the distressed Vidarbha region, with cotton expected on about 12 lakh hectares, the increase would be from 1.2 lakh hectares last year to 2.7 lakh hectares this year, estimates say. The area under Bt this year would have been double the above-mentioned figures but the government has now put the restriction that one bag of Bt can be used for half an acre instead of one as stipulated until last season. This has been done with a view to tackle the low-germination problem.

The total area under cotton (Bt plus non-Bt) in Vidarbha is, however, likely to decrease by at least 5 per cent, projections say. In the Amravati revenue division, most affected by suicides, the total area under cotton in 2004-05 was 10.75 lakh hectares. In 2005-06, it came marginally down to 10.27 lakh hectares while this year the projected figure is of 9.9 lakh hectares.

Similarly, in Nagpur division, the area under cotton in 2004-05 was 2.25 lakh hectares. It dropped to 2.21 lakh hectares in 2005-06. This year, it is set to come down to 1.9 lakh hectares, a drop of about 6 per cent. Cotton is fast being replaced by soyabean and pulses, a trend that has come to stay over the past five years. The total cotton area in state is also set to dip from 26.18 lakh to about 26 lakh hectares, government estimates say. In 04-05, the figure was about 30 lakh hectares. Clearly, more farmers are dumping general cotton in Maharashtra and more are preferring Bt to non-Bt.