‘We flushed out Chinese products from UP markets’: Yogi Adityanath
The Uttar Pradesh chief minister said this during a programme of the MSME Department held.
Unlike the whole nation, maize and cotton growers in Aurangabad district of perennially parched Marathwada region did not celebrate Diwali as their crops were destroyed by heavy post-monsoon rains.
This year, the Marathwada region received deficient downpour during monsoon. However, it received excessive post-monsoon showers in the last one week, a government official said.
In a report, news agency, Press Trust of India quoted a farmer, Ishwar Sapkal, a farmer from Soyegaon taluka saying, “Last year, pests ate 60 to 70 per cent of our cotton crop. This year, excess rains damaged both cotton and maize crops. Only 10 to 15 per cent of the crops can be reaped now.”
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“We can’t go in our fields due to water-logging and foul smell of the damaged crops. This is the second consecutive year when we are facing losses. We have not celebrated Diwali this year,” said Sapkal, who is also a ‘Krishi Mitra’, tasked to guide farmers on better crop yield.
He further said that the labourers were not ready to pick up the damaged crops.
“We have been able to save only 10 to 20 per cent of cotton, but the market rate for this damaged crop is Rs 2,000 per quintal, whereas for a good quality cotton we generally get Rs 5,500 per quintal,” said another farmer.
Sakpal said this year he was expecting a yield of 200 quintal cotton, but due to the weather adversities, now the numbers are going to come down at 30 quintal.
“Our crops are insured, we have paid premiums. But, we don’t know when the insurance firm employees will come and assess our losses. Because of this, we cannot even remove the damaged crop to clear our fields. If the insurers come late, we will lose the remaining crop also,” he said.
Meanwhile, Soyegaon taluka agriculture officer Sudam Ghule said that an assessment of the damage of the crops will be done soon.
(With input from agencies)
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