Shrivelled grain causes Rs. 8-16K loss/acre in Malwa

Tribune News Service

Sukhmeet Bhasin
Bathinda, April 22

Farmers are staring at a loss of Rs 8,000-16,000 per acre on an average on account of low wheat yield due to the early onset of summer and high temperature in the region. They are claiming the yield of wheat has reduced by 4 to 8 quintal per acre. The MSP on wheat is Rs 2,025 per quintal.

Drastic decline

Last year, the yield of wheat was 22-26 quintal per acre, which has now come down to 14 quintal an acre this year. The yield of crop sown in the fields where cotton was cultivated earlier is even lower. — Harjinder Buggi, Bathinda Farmer

The development has come as a double whammy for small farmers in the southern Malwa region, as some months ago, the cotton crop in large areas got damaged due to pink bollworm attack. Farmers are already worried about the economic implications of the unfavourable situations. Five farmers in Bathinda and Mansa districts — Randhir Singh (39) of Bhagiwander village, Jaspal Singh (39) of Maiserkhana village, Ramandeep Singh (38) of Bajak village , Gurdeep Singh (38) of Mansa Khurd village and Makhan Singh (42) of Bhadra village in Budhlada area in Mansa — have already ended their lives by suicides this week.

The badly hit are the small farmers who do contract farming. They have a fixed expenditure as they not only have to give land contract amount, but also have to bear the input cost. Many of them take money on loan with an aim to earn and return the amount after selling the crop, but the low yield has crushed their expectations.

Farmers claim earlier an acre produced three tractor-trailers of straw, but now it has

come down to one-and-a-half trailer. At present, a trailer of straw is being sold for Rs 4,000, which was causing a loss of about Rs 6,000 per acre.

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