ABOUT 30,000 farmers in Maharashtra are feeling cheated. The soybean seeds they had purchased from the state seed corporation, Mahabeej, failed to germinate this season. Over 40,000 hectares (ha) of farms in seven districts have been affected. Mahabeej has 45 per cent share in the soy seed business in the state.
The blame game
Government officials and the state agriculture department blame the farmers for the crop failure. M T Gondeswar, agriculture development officer of the worst affected district, Nanded, says the farmers planted the seeds before the soil was sufficiently moist. “This year the monsoons were late and farmers were in a hurry to sow the seeds,” he says. Soybean requires about five centimetres of soil moisture to germinate, and the soil moisture was not sufficient at the time of sowing, he says. Farmer Shivaji Hariba Charke from village Naygaon Wadi in Nanded contests this claim. “Monsoon variations are a yearly phenomenon that farmers are used to dealing with. But seed failure in a single crop on this scale has never been seen before,” he says. Gunwant Patil Hangargekar, farmer leader of the Shetkari Sanghatana in Nanded, says, “If soil moisture is the issue, then all crops should have failed.” Seeds from different agencies sown on the same day as the Mahabeej seeds have shown different germination tendencies, he adds.
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‘Seeds purchased from the state seed corporation failed while those from a private company, sown at the same time, sprouted’ |
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— NAGORAO BAKEWAD Farmer in Nanded |
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Government exposed