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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Vidarbha farmers in debt trap: Here is how to save them -Vivian Fernandes
-The Financial Express

How can the cotton and soybean farmers of Vidarbha and Marathwada supplement their incomes so they can get out of the trap of debt and self-engineered death? That was the theme of Union minister Nitin Gadkari’s ninth edition, four-day agricultural exhibition at Nagpur, called Agrovision, to which I was invited.  A promising beginning has been made. In October last year, the National Dairy Development Board commenced operations. It now has a footprint in five of 11 districts of Vidarbha and two of Marathwada’s eight districts. Milk collection averages 1.25 lakh litres per day which is processed at a refurbished dairy in Nagpur, given by the state government. The target is to get three lakh litres per day in three years, from 60,000 farmers up from 16,000 now.  That quantity will not be absorbed by consumers in the regions’ main cities. It will have to be sold in Mumbai for which a dairy is being set up in Thane. Farmers were initially sceptical, says Anil Hatekar, NDDB’s western region head. They had been duped by private dairies and were wary. But transparent procurement, where the quantity, fat content and solid non-fat content are measured before the seller, has built trust. Money is credited to the sellers’ bank accounts on the 11th day. So far, they have earned Rs 68 cr. This is a steady source of income which takes care of their daily needs.

In 40 of 970 villages where NDDB currently procures milk, farmers are taught ration balancing and silage production. With the help of an Android-based app, farmers can know whether they are giving their animals the right diet, overdosing them with some nutrients and under-providing others. For this, they have to tag their animals and feed data regarding weight, lactation stage and current milk yield. Hatekar claims this has reduced the cost by Rs 30 per day per animal. The state will also have to do its bit by vaccinating the cattle and reducing their susceptibility to disease. In these 40 villages, the animals are being artificially impregnated to produce crosses with the genes of superior indigenous breeds like Gir, Sahiwal and Rathi. Most of the animals are buffaloes, except in Osamanabad where cows dominate. At the event, Gadkari urged chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to allocate 1,000 acres of land to Patanjali’s Ramdev to breed 10,000 heads of Sahiwal and Gir cattle.

The growth of the dairy industry is tied to the meat industry. Unless non- and post-lactating animals are culled, farmers will not be able to give proper care to the productive ones. This is where ideology clashes with economics. NDDB does not intend to stay for the long-haul. It will exit once farmer producer companies it will help set up gain the capacity to take over the operations and marketing. That is the model it has followed in five other states.  The farmers of these regions can also supplement their income by growing bamboo, says CD Mayee, former director of the Nagpur-based Central Institute of Cotton Research (CICR) and chairman of the Advisory Council of Agrovision Foundation. Bamboo is a versatile crop and can be put to 23 uses, including paper and engineered timber. Vice president Venkaiah Naidu, who inaugurated the event, was presented with a shirt made of bamboo fibre. The Maharashtra Bamboo Development Board was set up last year to promote cultivated bamboo, using tissue cultured seedlings. India is the largest producer of bamboo; it covers 11.4 million hectares. But China which has 5.4 million ha under species earns more annually: $19.5 billion versus India’s 4.5 billion, says TSK Reddy, managing director of the board.

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