VIDARBA's Condition

It is the matter of great surprise and rude shock that, the Govt. of India has caused great inequality, discrimination, and injustice upon the Cotton Cultivating farmers of India, specially the Vidarbha Region of Maharashtra State as their demand to enhance & re-fix MSP of cotton has not been considered, whereas the Wheat Cultivating Farmers from North & East India have been given substantial increase of 33% in MSP of Wheat.

The Govt. of India while doing justice to the Wheat Cultivating Farmers to give better remunerative prices for their Wheat agro produce, have caused great inequality, discrimination and injustice upon the Cotton Cultivating Farmers by increasing the MSP merely by 2% as compared to last year. Though, Wheat and Cotton both cultivating farmers needs remunerative & affordable support prices to their respective produce, it seems the Govt. has applied different and distinct / separate yardsticks – rules – scales while fixing the MSP of Cotton and Wheat. It is the classic example of inequality before law and thus, the Govt. has violated the Principles of Equality laid down in the Article - 14 of the Constitution of India and thus, caused discrimination & injustice upon the lacs of cotton cultivating farmers especially in the Vidarbha Region, who are all in extreme distress & are witnessing the unpresented economic crisis compelling them to commit suicides due to non remunerative, non affordable and unrealistic prices to the Cotton Produce. By extending the benefit of increased remunerative support prices for Wheat, Gram, Mustard, etc. farmers Govt. of India has denied the same level playing field and thus also caused violation of Principle laid down in Article – 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India.

2) You are aware that, ours is the movement fighting for the cause of farmers and we have been pursuing the issue of remunerative affordable prices to the agriculture produce including cotton which is the only cash crop of the poor farmers in the Vidarbha Region of Maharashtra State. Since 1996-97, our organization is consistently demanding the increase in the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for the agro produced cotton, which are being fixed on the recommendations of your High-Power Commission which is working for the agriculture cost & prices in India for protection of the farmers and agriculture community at large. We enclosed herewith the chart of MSP fixed for cotton during last 10 years, which shows that the price increase is merely 3% per annum in an average, if we consider the MSP for cotton fixed @ Rs.1530/- in 1997-98 and @ Rs. 1990/- for the season 2006-07.

3) Sir, we have been apprising you that Vidarbha being rainfed area which is solely dependant on the natural / monsoon rains always experienced low yield of cotton as compared to other States in India. Now, due to abnormal increase in the high cost of production and consistent low yield due to many reasons, cotton cultivating farmers in the Vidarbha Region are suffering extremely and their economical condition is deteriorating year by year.

4) You are also aware that, due to introduction of high cost BT Cotton Seeds, the cost of production has almost doubled, but due to the rainfed area, per hectare cotton production / yield in Vidarbha is as low as 160KG (1.6 Quintal) per hector(This is as per report submitted to PMO by relief commissioner as on 10th October-2006 on vidarbha agrarian crisis) which is extremely low. As a result of this average yield of 2.3 to 2.5 Quintal per hectare, on the present cotton MSP F414 quality @ Rs.1770/- per Quintal and H4 Quality @ Rs.1990/- per Quintal, it is very difficult for the cotton cultivating farmers to survive.

5) We have also apprised you that, this has ultimately resulted in extremely poor economic condition being deteriorated further and now this situation is such a volatile and unfortunate that, hundreds of cotton cultivating farmers have committed suicides. It’s a matter of National Shame. If we believe the Govt. figures of such unfortunate incidence of suicides, more than 7500 farmers have committed suicides since 2001-02. This unfortunate number of suicides are increasing day by day even after the continued efforts of the State Govt. as well as the Central Govt. The Packages announced have virtually failed to give any immediate relief to the dying cotton cultivating farmers of Vidarbha Region. It is regretted that, the CACP and Govt. is not paying attention towards the increase in the prices of the cotton, which must be remunerative and give support to the farmers in Vidarbha Region. Our organization believes that, the only solution is to increase MSP of cotton so that the cotton farming can become profitable to the farmers of Vidarbha.

6) You are aware that, even after our consistent demand to increase the MSP for cotton, CACP has not considered the same and recommended MSP @ Rs.2030/- per Quintal means bare increase of Rs.40/- per Quintal as compared to last year price of Rs.1990/- per Quintal MSP of H4 Quality Cotton. It is injustice with the depressed farmers of Vidarbha Region.

7) However, while fixing the supportive prices of Wheat, Barley, Gram, Masoor, Rapseed and Sunflower, Govt. of India is kind enough & generous to increase the prices substantially to make it remunerative & affordable to the Farmers of North & East India. In a most welcome decision, Govt. of India now increased the MSP for Wheat to @ Rs.1000/- per quintal as compared to @ Rs.700/- per quintal recommended by CACP means 33% increase when compared to last year. Similarly, the prices of Barley (@ Rs.650/-), Gram (@ Rs.1600/-), Masoor (@ Rs.1700/-), Sunflower (@ Rs.1650/-) have also been increased substantially to benefit the farmers in their interest. We give below the Comparative Chart of the increased in the prices which shows at a glance picture how substantial increased have been given to the farmers of North & East India.