FARMERS’ EXPLOITATION AT ITS PEAK

FARMERS’ EXPLOITATION AT ITS PEAK

15-DEC-ENG 1

RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

SASARAM---------------------------The Kharif crop season is drawing to a close. Farmers invested heavily in expensive fertilizers and seeds to prepare their fields, but untimely rains have ruined all the paddy crops. Farmers in Dinara block and across Rohtas district are lamenting their fate. There is no one to listen to them. At a time when the NDA is celebrating its landslide victory, the farmers are facing crippling inflation and the natural disaster has caused the paddy crops to wither, resulting in less than half the expected yield. Paddy harvesting was carried out at the Mehroad agricultural farm in Dinara block under the instructions of officials and senior officers. The in-charge block agriculture officer stated that only nine sacks of paddy were produced per bigha. The situation for other farmers is even worse. Low yield combined with the low price of paddy at eighteen hundred rupees per quintal is devastating. Farmers are unable to recover even the cost of fertilizers, seeds, and sowing due to the crushing inflation. On top of this, the expenses of their children's education and marriages are further burdening their income. The government says to deliver the paddy to the PACS and Vyapar Mandal (cooperative societies) and receive twenty-four hundred rupees. However, the Vyapar Mandal and PACS chairmen are busy in fraudulent paddy purchases. Even when they do buy from one or two farmers, they are subjected to immense harassment. They are patting themselves on the back by making fake purchases in the name of farmers who live elsewhere and small farmers. There is no one to listen to the farmers. The NDA government says it will double farmers' income, but how this will happen is still unclear to the farmers. If the current government has finished celebrating its victory, it should now think about the farmers. If the government is supposed to pay twenty-four hundred rupees per sack of paddy at the PACS and Vyapar Mandal, then why is there such a huge difference in the open market price? The government should focus on this and increase the price of paddy in the open market in the interest of the farmers. The distress of the farmers due to the crushing inflation is evident. False figures of paddy procurement are being provided by the chairmen through the officials, which is a matter of great concern. Farmers are being exploited tremendously.