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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | It’s not just farmers, Marathwada businesses too roiled by drought -Abhiram GhadyalPatil

It’s not just farmers, Marathwada businesses too roiled by drought -Abhiram GhadyalPatil

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published Published on Apr 21, 2016   modified Modified on Apr 21, 2016
-Livemint.com

Automobile, construction industry, steel manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, breweries, and distilleries key sectors in Marathwada. Latur is major centre for production of pulses, oilseeds

Latur, Maharashtra:
Nilesh Thakkar, managing director of Maharashtra Biofertilizers India Pvt. Ltd (MBF), has virtually turned the Latur headquarters of India’s top organic fertilizer company into a campaign office.

This is the office from where he runs Jalyukt Latur, a public campaign to revive the Manjra River nearby.

And Thakkar is not the only businessman to have committed resources to this campaign. Representatives from all major industries and retail businesses, commodity markets, educational institutes and cooperative banks have teamed up with social organizations to raise money for the initiative that aims to find a permanent solution to the water scarcity problems of Latur.

With emergency trains ferrying water into the town, Latur has become the most visible symbol of the drought that has struck the Marathwada region of Maharashtra. But underlying this push to find solutions is another factor—while distressed farmers and parched farmland have dominated news about Marathwada, businesses linked to the region’s agricultural economy too have been hit hard.

“The situation has forced us to get involved. All businesses, including my own, are down by at least 50% due to drought over the last three years because the farmer, who is our main consumer has no money to either invest in agriculture inputs or buy consumer goods that are not essential,” Thakkar says.

“We felt we could not rely on the government only to revive the sentiment. Solutions have to come from the people and we are doing our bit as businesses which depend on people.”

All through the day Thakkar receives donations from businesses, educational institutes, banks, trade and professional associations, and commodity markets.

His company MBF operates in 14 states, including some other drought-hit ones like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand. “The main consumer of our organic inputs is the farmer. But his purchasing power has been severely hit by drought in all these states, including Maharashtra. Till 2013-14, MBF was registering nearly 50% growth every year but this has dropped to 10% in 2014-15 and 2015-16 as demand has shrunk due to climatic conditions,” Thakkar says.

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Livemint.com, 20 April, 2016, http://www.livemint.com/Politics/a9KPmiNESnwWNFNVaGdtQL/Not-just-farmers-Marathwada-businesses-too-roiled-by-drough.html
 

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