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No end to cotton farmers' woes in Maharashtra

As the skies stayed clear till the second week of June, Ramesh Gulabhrao Digde's mood darkened.

canada goose black friday sale His two acres were ploughed at great expense, the seeds were purchased, and a sack of fertilisers lay in a corner of his thatch roofed hut in Parsodi village in western Maharashtra's Yavatmal district. But the rains had played truant. canada goose black friday sale

canada goose coats On June 17, Ramesh tired of the wait and swallowed a phial of pesticide. "He kept saying 'moneylender, moneylender'," said his canada goose coats son, who found Ramesh in a delirious state and took him to a hospital, where the 56 year old farmer breathed his last. canada goose coats

That night, clouds gathered over the baked fields in Parsodi and the rains finally poured down.

Ramesh's neighbour, Sureshrao Ramdas Digde, 55, had planted early this year. On June 6, he sowed 12 bags buy canada goose jacket of cottonseeds on his five acre farm; the seeds never germinated. A day after Ramesh's death, he sowed another 12 bags.

Canada Goose Outlet The rains, however, stopped as mysteriously as they had begun and buy canada goose jacket cheap Sureshrao's second crop failed, too. Canada Goose Outlet

Canada Goose Online On July 26, when the farmers of Parsodi went out to their fields to sow the cotton crop for the third time in a month, Sureshrao stayed at home and reached for the pesticide. Canada Goose Online

canada goose factory sale "He was dead when I came home," Canada Goose online said Rajendra Dighde, Sureshrao's younger brother. "He needed this crop to repay his earlier debts, but the rains failed him." canada goose factory sale

Erratic rains in Maharashtra's cotton belt have forced farmers to sow their fields a number of times. This, in some instances, has increased individual debts, as farmers who exhausted their institutional credit have borrowed money from informal moneylenders to finance the replanting of fields, raising the spectre of further deaths around harvest time.

In 2012, 3,786 farmers committed suicide in Maharashtra, according to the most recent data provided by the National Crime Records Bureau. The number of farmers who committed suicides due to crop related issues this year isn't known.

canada goose uk shop Recent reports suggest the http://www.mycanadagoosejacket.org canadian goose jacket rainfall deficit in Maharashtra's cotton belts of Vidarbha and Marathwada has widened; Marathwada is now facing a 60 per cent deficit, while the shortfall in Vidarbha is 23 per cent. Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture indicate farmers across the country have planted more cotton this year compared to the last, as the crop is considered drought resistant compared to canada goose outlet other options such as soybean. canada goose uk shop

Farmers hope a revitalised monsoon could yet result in good yields and good profits, but a perfect storm of local, national and international factors could mean low cotton prices, lower profits and persistent indebtedness.

Canada Goose Coats On Sale "International cotton prices have fallen this year," said Faiyaz Hudani, associate vice president (research) at Kotak Commodities. Canada Goose Coats On Sale

uk canada goose outlet "October futures for cotton on the ICE benchmark index have fallen 26 per cent in the past month, while October futures on Indian exchanges have fallen 15 per cent." uk canada goose outlet

Canada Goose sale Globally, cotton prices have been depressed by a very good harvest in the US, which canada goose clearance has brought additional supply to the market, while global demand for cotton has slowed, as China, the world's largest cotton producer and canada goose importer, has imported 42 per cent less in the canada goose coats on sale first six months of this year. Canada Goose sale

This year, the Chinese government is replacing a 2011 cotton stockpiling policy with a crop subsidy programme. It hasn't released any further details.

Canada Goose online Hudani said it was difficult to predict spot prices in October but added he expected prices to be slightly below last year's levels. "Price movement will be sideways Canada Goose Outlet to negative," he said. Canada Goose online

buy canada goose jacket "International prices are the main drivers of domestic cotton prices in India," said D K Nair, secretary general of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry. buy canada goose jacket

He added cotton futures trading in India was negligible, adding traders took price Canada Goose sale cues from domestic and international exchanges. "The price will also be affected by the exchange rate and the market's anticipation of the price in the following year."

cheap Canada Goose Nair cautioned cotton procurement by China was hard to predict. As the world's largest player in both cotton and textiles, China, like India, must strike a balance between adequately compensating its cotton farmers and providing raw materials at competitive prices to the textile sector. cheap Canada Goose

"China has very large stocks; a big appetite for cotton; and little public information," Nair said. "If it decides to reduce stocks, prices could fall; if they increase stocks, prices could rise."

He estimated this year, cotton prices would be lower than last year, though these would be more than the government's minimum support price of Rs 4,050 a quintal for long staple cotton.

In Parsodi, farmers are making their own calculations. "Cotton planting costs about Rs 15,000 an acre," said Rajendra, the farmer. "In a good year, the yield could rise to 10 quintals to the acre, which means a reasonable profit of Rs 25,000 an acre."

canada goose A study by S Parasuraman and T Rajaretnam of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences shows 40 per cent of Vidarbha's farmers own between two and five acres of land that yield an average 6.5 quintals of cotton each. Only 10 per cent of these households have irrigated land. The median household income in 2008 09, the survey showed, was canada goose clearance sale Rs 39,000. canada goose

Canada Goose Jackets "I have sowed my fields thrice this year; so, my canada goose store input costs have gone up a great deal," Rajendra said, adding he had also taken a loan of about Rs 30,000 from a private money lender at five per cent a Canada Goose Parka month, or 60 per cent a year. Canada Goose Jackets

The monthly interest means farmers sell their produce early to pay off their loans, rather than hold on to the cotton until the price is right. Last year, for instance, Ujwala Pedkar, a cotton farmer in the neighbouring district of Wardha, grew 30 quintals of cotton, 25 quintals of which she sold at the minimum support price of Rs 4,000 a quintal to pay her debts. She sold the remaining five quintals at the cheap Canada Goose end of the season, at Rs 5,500 a quintal.

Pedkar is uncomfortably aware of the implications of creeping interest rates 12 years ago, her husband Prabhakar Pedkar canada goose deals killed himself when he couldn't repay a moneylender who appropriated part of the family farm. "Now, I pay my debts as soon as I can," she says.

canada goose clearance sale "The trader takes a loan at 12 13 per cent a year to buy cotton from a farmer who borrows money at 60 per cent," said an industry representative. "Who do you think can hold out longer?" canada goose clearance sale.