8 farmers end lives in 2 days in Vidarbha

Nagpur, Nov 3 (UNI) As many as eight distressed farmers committed suicide in the last two days in Vidarbha, activists here today said.

The eight farmers who ended their lives included three from Bhandara district, two from Washim, and one each from Chandrapur, Amravati and Yavatmal districts, according to Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS), a voluntary organisation working for farmers in the region.

With this, the number of farmer suicides in Vidarbha has touched 1,053 since June last year, VJAS said in a release issued here. This includes 513 farmers who took the extreme step during the current kharif season (from June 2006 till date) and 445 who did so since the announcement of the Prime Minister's relief package on July 1, it said.

According to the figures compiled by VJAS, 68 farmers committed suicide in June this year, 90 in July, 111 in August, 124 in September and 112 in October, besides the eight in the first two days of November.

Meanwhile, VJAS has dismissed as 'incorrect' the state government's claim that the cotton crop in Maharashtra was expected to be 350 lakh quintals this year. The output was not likely to be more than 150 lakh quintals because of the advent of pests on 16 lakh hectares of the total 22 lakh hectares on which BT cotton was sown in Vidarbha this year, the organisation said.

The state government could, therefore, pay a procurement price of Rs 2,700 per quintal for cotton this season, it said. VJAS has been demanding a procurement price of Rs 2,700 per quintal for cotton to aggravate the suffering of cultivators in Vidarbha.

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