In Rajasthan’s cotton belt, empty mandis and an echo: ‘Will Congress or BJP compensate for my crop loss’

“Picking is still on in the remaining 19 bigha, but the yields will be more or less the same 35 kg even there. In normal conditions, I get around 7 quintals (700 kg) per bigha,” says Godara, who has brought his harvested produce to the main wholesale APMC (agricultural produce market committee) mandi in Sri Ganganagar.

This farmer’s crop – like that of many in Rajasthan’s two major cotton-growing districts off Sri Ganganagar and Hanumangarh – has been destroyed by the gulabi sundi or pink bollworm. The 20 bigha that Godara sowed included 7 of his own and the rest 13 taken on an annual lease rent of Rs 22,000 per bigha. At the market rate of Rs 6,500 per quintal that he realised, the 35 kg would be worth Rs 2,275 – not even covering his cultivation cost of Rs 15,000-16,000 per bigha, let alone the lease charge.

Most farmers in Sri Ganganagar and Hanumangarh The Indian Express interacted with reported narma yields of 1.5-2 quintals per bigha – less than a third of the normal average of 6-7 quintals – thanks to the devastation wreaked by gulabi sundi.

“Will the party in the state (Congress) or in the Centre (BJP) compensate me for my crop loss? Even if I take out my anger on the day of (Assembly) election, will it be of any help?” asks Godara. This sentiment – and belief that no government is capable of assisting them in moments of crisis – is voiced almost universally by growers in the cotton belt of poll-bound Rajasthan, which has seen an all-time-high 8.25 lakh hectares area sown under cotton this kharif season. In the past some years, it ranged between 6 lakh and 7.5 lakh hectares.

Most farmers in Sri Ganganagar and Hanumangarh The Indian Express interacted with reported narma yields of 1.5-2 quintals per bigha – less than a third of the normal average of 6-7 quintals – thanks to the devastation wreaked by gulabi sundi. The pink pest has literally taken the shine off the White Gold.

The two districts account for 11 Assembly constituencies (six in Ganganar, including two reserved, and five in Hanumangarh, including one reserved). Officials in the two districts said there are around three lakh families in each district, involved in agriculture activities. While almost every farmer in these districts grows cotton, the area of cultivation may range from one bigha to a couple of hundred bigha.

These two districts along with Bikaner are the regions in upper Rajasthan where area under cotton cultivation jumped 24 per cent to 5.25 lakh hectares, but bollworm damage has been the worst. Lower Rajasthan districts Bhilwara, Nagaur and Merta (around 3.10 lakh hectares) also grow cotton, and their crop has been safe.

The young larvae of the pink bollworm basically burrow into the bolls or fruits of the cotton plant in which the white lint fibre and seeds grow. The infestation starts as early as 40-45 days of the crop’s duration of 170-180 days. The pest’s own short life cycle of 25-35 days enables at least 3-4 generations to be completed in a single season, rendering the crop susceptible to multiple attacks.

“The larvae are very small and are not easily visible as they go into and feed inside the bolls. Pesticides are useless since these can only be sprayed on the plants or outside of the bolls, whereas the larvae do all their work inside,” said Gurmail Singh, a 40-bigha farmer from Akkanwali village of Sri Ganganagar tehsil.

The Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in Rajasthan announced a Rs 1,125-crore relief package for cotton growers a couple of days before the poll schedule was made public by the Election Commission (EC).

“We only heard about it, but haven’t received any compensation. The government people haven’t even come here to do girdawari (crop loss assessment). How can there be any payment without it?”pointed out Singh, who sowed cotton on 25 out of his 40 bigha and guar (cluster bean) on the remaining 15 bigha.

A group of cotton growers and labourers in the agriculture produce market in Hanumangarh

“I planted 5 bigha more compared to last year. Normally I harvest 7-8 quintals per bigha over three chugai (pickings; the first happens after about 120 days and the other two 25-30 days thereafter). This time, I got an average of 1.5-2 quintals and sab kuchh ek hi chugai mein khatam ho gaya (the entire crop got harvested with a single picking,” he said.

At the Hanumangarh Town APMC, Baljinder Singh is hardly impressed with the announcement of compensation: “If they were serious, the government should have announced it earlier (before the imposition of the Model Code of Conduct by the EC). The impact of the pest was known over two months back. The least they could have done is conduct a girdawari now.”

Other farmers around him — Sukhdev Singh, Madan Lal, and Vinod Kumar — nod their heads. They are all demanding a compensation of Rs 50,000 per bigha for crop loss. Interestingly, none of them are clearly voicing how all this will play out on the day of polling. “That we will decide closer to the date. Let us see what they (the various parties) promise.”

Ashok Nath Pal brought the first picking of 40 quintals narma from his 47 bigha holding. He expects a similar harvest from his second and final picking around 10 days from now. “My total yield won’t be more than 2 quintals per bigha,” estimated this farmer from Kulchasar village of Hanumangarh’s Pallu tehsil.

The extent of crop loss can also be gauged by market arrivals. October is usually the peak marketing season for cotton, when the APMC mandi in northern Rajasthan are bustling with farmers, labourers, traders, ginners and millers. The scene in the current season has been entirely different. It was with much effort that The Indian Express could find farmers with small heaps of narma both in the Sri Ganganagar and Hanumangarh APMC yards.

It’s not farmers alone that have been affected by the pink bollworm. Even labourers who do picking of cotton — they are paid on a per-kg basis and earn depending on how much yield they harvest — and those handling the crop at the mandi are complaining. Last year, farmers paid labourers Rs 8-9 per kg for picking their cotton. This year, the charges have soared to Rs 10-15, as labourers are able to pick only 15-16 kg daily, as against 40-50 kg last year, due to a lower crop.

“We are sitting idle the whole day, as there is very little work. I haven’t seen such low arrivals of narma in my five years here. We will not be able to earn even half of what we normally do in the season,” said Manish Sahu, a labourer at Sri Ganganagar APMC.

In this district’s main market yard, hardly 7,000 quintals of narma have arrived so far in the current season from September end, compared to over 15,000 quintals last year during the same period.

In Hanumangarh Town APMC Mandi, 2.68 lakh quintals of the crop had arrived in the previous year. This year, arrivals have totalled just around 86,000 quintals as on date.