Indian farmers take their lives after freak hailstorms

[Devil Soul]

Indian farmers take their lives after freak hailstorms
By AFP
Published: March 19, 2014

MUMBAI: A string of farmers have committed suicide in western India after freak hailstorms and rains destroyed winter crops worth millions of dollars, activists and politicians said Wednesday.

The unusual weather struck parts of western Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, from late February and went on to badly damage crops.

A source from the Maharashtra chief minister’s office told AFP that seven suicides had been confirmed, with more killed by the storm itself, but the opposition and activists said the real figure was much higher.

“There have been 32 (farmer) suicides so far across Maharashtra after the hailstorms started… We are getting hourly updates from our people,” said Kishor Tiwari, president of farmers’ advocacy group Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti.

He said the figure was expected to rise after more post-mortems were carried out.

India’s main opposition group, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said on Tuesday that the number of farmer suicides had gone up to 37, demanding that the natural disaster be declared a “national calamity”, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported.

“Since the hailstorm began on February 28, the entire rabi (winter-sown) crop on 1.6 million hectares of land in 17 districts has been destroyed,” said senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde.

The region, which usually experiences the tropical rainy season from June to October, saw major damage to crops of fruits such as grape, mango, papaya, lime and watermelon, according to local reports.

Among those to commit suicide was debt-ridden Bapu Ramchandra Pawar, 62, who poisoned himself after his pomegranate farm was destroyed, police told PTI.

Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has released a statement promising to stand by victims of the storm who suffered “utter distress” from the damage of their crops, which were about to be harvested.

He urged those affected not to “take any steps that endanger their lives under such emotional stress”.

Ahead India’s general election which begins next month, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is due to visit the troubled area on Thursday.

He is expected to hold a public rally in Vidarbha, a region notorious for its high level of farmer suicides.

A delegation of ministers from Maharashtra met India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last Friday and demanded 800 million dollars in relief towards damage caused by the freak weather.

 

[Gandhi G in da house]

Rest in Peace

 

[Robinhood Pandey]

RIP

 

[Koovie]

I am well informed so shame back to you!!

Well your comment certainly did not imply that

 

[ranjeet]

Shame for india..... and the are busy buying weapons !!

Forget about the article .... did you even read the thread title properly before posting this cr@p?

 

[Robinhood Pandey]

Forget about the article .... did you even read the thread title properly before posting this cr@p?

Let him score some brownie points.

 

[ranjeet]

Let him score some brownie points.

Okay ... but only because you said so .. .nahi to leni deni kar deni thi.

 

[Indischer]

Just goes to illustrate the tight-rope walk that poor farmers of India have to endure. One crop loss and there is virtually nothing a farmer can do to run his household.

 

[ranjeet]

Just goes to illustrate the tight-rope walk that poor farmers of India have to endure. One crop loss and there is virtually nothing a farmer can do to run his household.

We need another Green revolution ... not in terms of production but empowering farmers to further process their harvest. That's the only way to go about things or else we will see such situations for the future too.

 

[Indischer]

We need another Green revolution ... not in terms of production but empowering farmers to further process their harvest. That's the only way to go about things or else we will see such situations for the future too.

Eliminating the middlemen and ensuring that a farmer gets the lions share of income that would otherwise go to a middleman will help to a large extent. And better storage techniques packaging/processing units through community cooperatives has been implemented successfully at a few places. But it needs to be embraced in a big way across India.

 

[ranjeet]

Eliminating the middlemen and ensuring that a farmer gets the lions share of income that would otherwise go to a middleman will help to a large extent. And better storage techniques packaging/processing units through community cooperatives has been implemented successfully at a few places. But it needs to be embraced in a big way across India.

Yeah I know ... belonging to a farmer's family can feel the pain. Would love to make a difference however small it might be, but made up my mind to get in the this field and do something.

 

[Indischer]

Yeah I know ... belonging to a farmer's family can feel the pain. Would love to make a difference however small it might be, but made up my mind to get in the this field and do something.

It would be great if you can implement a model that eliminates these middlemen. A food processing unit at a community level would be a good beginning.

 

[ranjeet]

It would be great if you can implement a model that eliminates these middlemen. A food processing unit at a community level would be a good beginning.

Yeah baby steps ... also been searching about how to produce gas and fertilizer from the farm waste. Sapne bade hai but would love to see few of them fulfilled.

 

[Skull and Bones]

Rather than implementing socialist schemes to woo votes, GoI should implement some sort of insurance over the crops at a nominal premium. That could safe guard the yield of the farmer over adverse climate conditions, and might prolly save lives.

It would be great if you can implement a model that eliminates these middlemen. A food processing unit at a community level would be a good beginning.

Those middle men employs more people than the farmers and retailers put together. That is the sole cause of over 400% rise in price from the farmer to the consumers.

If government implements a plan to acquire the harvest from the farmers at a standard cost, and store and distribute the products based on the demand and price. That might control food inflation to a large extent, and at the same time, the government endorsed supply chain can employ millions.

 

[Indischer]

Rather than implementing socialist schemes to woo votes, GoI should implement some sort of insurance over the crops at a nominal premium. That could safe guard the yield of the farmer over adverse climate conditions, and might prolly save lives.



Those middle men employs more people than the farmers and retailers put together. That is the sole cause of over 400% rise in price from the farmer to the consumers.

If government implements a plan to acquire the harvest from the farmers at a standard cost, and store and distribute the products based on the demand and price. That might control food inflation to a large extent, and at the same time, the government endorsed supply chain can employ millions.

True that. The middlemen are necessary because the farmer doesn't have the resources to sell his produce directly to retailers owing to poor storage/processing facilities, vast distances to be covered to access the market and short shelf life of the produce unless transported in customized transport vehicles/carriages. Centralized Granaries like the present model won't work. Localized granaries and farmers moving up the processing chain will be good.