BT Cotton - 2007 Mass Sowing Again in India

Indian Agriculture Ministry Bystander in BT Cotton Sowing Plans of 2007 -
THE RECORD 350 COTTON FARMERS SUICIDES IN VIDARBHA : IT'S ONCE AGAIN BT COTTON MASS SOWING IN VIDARBHA

Nagpur, 01 MAY 2007 :

The cotton growing area of western Vidarbha under severe agrarian crisis, has recorded 350 farm suicides, in first four months of 2007.
However, there is no drop in sowing of high failure bt. Cotton in this region as it is reported locally that this year area covered under bt. Cotton sowing is likely to be doubled from 8 lacs hectares to 16 lac hectares.
Why ?
All seed traders, cum money lenders, are giving BT Cotton seeds on credit to these debt trapped farmers, after more than 95% cotton farmers failed to repay crop loan this year, due poor cotton crop, and drop in market rate of sold cotton.
Government machinery and Indian bankers, are not giving fresh loans to defaulter cotton farmers where as Monsanto is giving huge credit and lucrative schemes to seed traders and they, in turn, are forcing innocent cotton farmers to purchase these failure prone BT Cotton seed.
Local government administration has reported this fact to Indian Govt. but everybody is turning blind eye as American genetically modified seed giant Monsanto has protection from US Agriculture Department, where as in India, Agriculture Minister and Cricket Minister of India Bhau Sharad Pawar is patron of this company in India, as infomed by Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti in press note released today.

VJAS has been demanding complete ban on bt. Cotton in west vidarbha as now it's official that bt. Cotton has been failed in rainfed area and in all most all 95% area is rain fed and farmers has to depend upon monsoon which is not regular and small and marginal farmers are suffering from massive economic losses due to frequent failure of bt. cotton and majority of 2500 cotton farmers suicides reported since June 2005 are small and marginal farmers who opted bt. Cotton seed in rain fed area, Kishor Tiwari of vjas added.

THE MISLEADING TABLE OF SHOWN IN ADVT. OF BOLLGARDII IS LIKE THIS :

BOLLGARDII
BOLLGARD
BOGUS BT.
HYBRID COTTON

COST OF SEED PER BAG :

(450GMS)
RS.1350
RS.750
RS.500
RS.400

COST OF FERTILIZER :
RS.1150
RS.1150
RS.1150
RS.1150

COST OF PESTICIDE :
RS.450
RS.450
RS.900
RS.1200

OTHER COSTS :
RS.1500
RS.1500
RS.1000
RS.1200

TOTAL INPUT COST :
RS.4500
RS.3850
RS.3550
RS.3950

PRODUCTION COST :
RS.1100
RS.900
RS.500
RS.500

PRODUCTION EXPECTED :
1100 KG.
900 KG.
500KG.
500KG.

OUTPUT COST :
RS.2000
RS.2000
RS.2000
RS.2000

TOTAL INCOME PER ACRE :
RS.22000
RS.18000
RS.10000
RS.10000

PROFIT PER ACRE :
RS.17550
RS.14150
RS.6450
RS.6050

HERE IS OFFICIAL DATA OF BT. COTTON FAILURE IN LAST THREE YEARS :
KHARIFF-YEAR
COTTON PRODUCTION IN QUINTALS
COTTON RATE
COTTON PRODUCTION PER HECTOR
SEED COST PER HECTOR
PESTICIDE COST PER HECTOR

2002-03
310 LACS
RS.2700
380KG
RS.1100
RS.1200

2003-04
260 LACS
RS.2500
340KG
RS.1200
RS.1400

2004-05
210 LACS
RS.2500
390KG
RS.1350
RS.1300

2005-06
180 LACS
RS.1780
190KG
RS.9600
RS.1650

2006-07
134 LACS
RS.1890
160KG
RS.5600
RS.1350

VJAS has demanded that Government of India should ban bollgardII Bt cotton in Vidarbha to stop on going farm suicides, agrarian distress and farm debts.

In year 2007, record 350 vidarbha farmers suicides reported (JAN-70, FEB-88, MARCH -97 APRIL 95) that has exposed local administration that package implementation has dropped down the farm suicides in vidarbha by 50% as farm suicide figure of this year since Jan to April is all most double and farm suicides in vidarbha are daily increasing but administration is using official media to mislead the world that vidarbha farm suicides are on decline as maharashtra govt. on it's own website ;

http://www.vnss-mission.gov.in/docs/suicide.pdf

has put the information that exposes this claims as wrong one as vidarbha farm suicides in last three year are on record high and vidarbha Jan andolan samiti has given the reference of their own web site official data, which is like this
OFFICIAL FIGURE OF FARM SUICIDES IN SIX DISTRICT OF WEST VIDARBHA :

http://www.vnss-mission.gov.in/docs/suicide.pdf
FARM SUICIDE AND YEAR
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007 TILL APRIL

SUICIDE IN YEAR
49
105
143
441
560
1427
350

THIS FIGURE OF SUICIDE ARE FROM SIX DISTRICTS i.e. YAVATMAL,AMARAVATI,AKOLA,WARDHA,WASHIM,BULDHANA OF VIDARBHA AND ARE FROM GOVT. WEBSITE :
http://www.vnss-mission.gov.in/docs/suicide.pdf

RECORD SUICIDE AFTER PRIME MINISTER RELIEF PACKAGE ANNOUNCEMENT :

Dr. Man Mohan Singh, reputed Oxbridge economist, and Indian Prime minister, visited Vidarbha on 1 st July 2006 and announced Rs.3750 crore package to the cotton farmers of six districts, but official record says that there record increase in cotton farmers suicides after this package announcement as govt. of maharashtra has officially admitted 1534 farmers suicides after 1 st July 2007 as this suicide figure is all most equal to suicide figure of last decade and this fact is known to govt. officials very well.
Bureaucratic officials in charge of agriculture and relief in Maharashtraa, are saying that suicide are declining and after the trumpeted relief package, suicide rate has come down to 50%, this is matter of shame Kishor tiwari added.

Govt. of Maharashtra has selected Dr. Sudhir Goyal, Relief Commissioner to clarify this misleading suicide data as same relief commissioner has put govt. official survey which shows that 75% of 1.7 million farmers are in distress, and more that 4 lacs 34 thousands cotton farmers, are in deep distress and their hardship are needed to be addressed has not been taken care of in these so called relief packages.

Link to survey : http://www.vnss-mission.gov.in/docs/servey.pdf

29/04/2007

Western Vidarbha :

1. BALU BABULAL RATHODE, CHOUPHULI TANDA, YVATMAL
2. ANIL BHAUSINGH CHAVAN, KARWAT, BULDHANA
3. PRASHANTRAMBHAU DARANEBRAHMANI, WARDHA
4. TANAJI MOTIRAM CHANDNE MUNDEPHAL, BULDHANA
5. VISHNU DHYANESHAWAR DESHMUKH, DEOLI, WARDHA

26/04/2007

Western Vidarbha :

1. NARAYAN CHAMPATRAO JUNJUNKAR OF RALEGOAN IN YAVATMAL
2. MAHADEV RAMCHANDRA POPHALE OF DHOTERDI IN AKOLA
3. PANDURANG BHIKAJI DEVKAR OF MAZALGOAN IN BULDHANA
4. SATISH GOVIND RAGHUWANSHI OF HIRULPURNA IN AMARAVATI
5. RAJESH BHAGWAN WANKHEDE IN KALARA IN AKOLA
6. LAXMAN RAMAJI SAHARE IN CHANDOLA IN AMARAVATI

Volte face by Maharashtra and PMO - PM vidarbha Package

From Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti :
PMO APATHY TO VIDARBHA RELIEF PACKAGE:

MAHARASHTRA GOVT. MISLEAD SUPREME COURT
NAGPUR-13TH APRIL, 2007

It is reported that in order to save volte face of non functioning of PMO regarding follow up relief aid distribution as announced by Indian prime minister as vidarbha farmers relief package of rs.3750 crore, the Maharashtra government has withdrawn its allegations against the Prime Minister's Office of delaying the release of additional funds for ex-gratia assistance to suicide-affected farmers' families in the state.

The allegation caused a major embarrassment to Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh and the Congress, as the party was a senior partner in the coalition government in Maharashtra.

This central assistance authorised district collectors to sanction Rs 10,000 for a suicide-affected family for health and education related expenses. An amount of Rs 50 lakh each was placed for disposal with the six district collectors for this purpose in August 2006.

In an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, the state had said, "this amount has fully been disbursed to the needy families and the state government has been requesting the Prime Minister's Office for additional funds. The State has even earmarked Rs 1.80 crore from the Chief Minister's Fund, with a view to keep the scheme running otherwise the scheme had to be stopped for the delay in receiving grants from the PMO."

"This is completely false affidavit as relied aid has not given to affected farm widows and farmers' families as on today" PIL Petitioner Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti President Kishore Tiwari in nagpur bench of mumbai high court in the same issue has informed today that maharashtra Govt. has given untrue and misleading information in the recent affidavit as relief data given by the on their web site does not support made in this affidavit in fact PMO was only spectators to farm suicides after 1st July 2006 and there is no action from PMO on record ,kishor tiwari added

The affidavit had come in response to a PIL filed by advocate Sanjeev Bhatnagar seeking review of the current agriculture policy in view of suicides committed by thousands of farmers in various parts of the country.

It is reported in the press today that now, Maharashtra's Joint Secretary and OSD, Relief and Rehabilitation, Praveen Srivastava has filed an additional affidavit seeking to delete the allegations against the PMO.

Srivastava alleged that a particular sentence of the affidavit had been torn out and misinterpreted out of context by a section of press to interpret that the state government was putting the blame on the PMO for the delay in making available funds.

"I am constrained to file this additional affidavit so as to make the record clear and unambiguous and lead no manner of doubt as to the contentions of 2nd Respondent (Maharashtra) in this regard," Srivastava said in the affidavit.

Instead, Maharashtra requested the court to allow it to add two additional pages appreciating Singh's visit to Vidarbha, announcement of package for farmers and his support to the scheme.

This is the mockery of the relief operation as more than 1000 farmers suicides have been reported by Maharashtra state Govt. on the web site officially after the announcement of the relief package by Indian Prime Minister now as face saving device both are misleading the apex court, it's unfortunate and we will move against both Govt. at the central level and local level as matter of contempt of court, Kishor Tiwari further added.

11/04/2007

Western Vidarbha : Vidarbha Jan andolan samiti - Nagpur, Maharashtra

NAGPUR - 11TH APRIL2007

IN LAST TWO DAYS 8 MORE VIDARBHA FARM SUICIDES REPORTED IN VIDARBHA DUE TO DISTRESS OF AGRARIAN CRISIS MOST OF THE FARMERS ARE IN DEBT TRAP AND SMALL RAIN FED FARMERS, THEY ARE :

1. DHANRAJ HOLKAR, PATAPANGARA, YAVATMAL
2. MAHADEV DANAV, PAVHNA, CHNADRAPUR
3. BALIRAM INGALE, AMONA, BULDHANA
4. RAMESH HARANE, GAVANDGOAN, AMRAVATI
5. RAMABAI PHATE, DIVANKHED, AMARAVATI
6. GOVINDA JUNGHARE, METIKHEDA, YAVATMAL
7. JAGDIAH TIKALE, TALEGOAN, AMARAVATI
8. GULAB NEWARE, BELORA, YAVATMAL

YAVATMAL AND AMRAVATI DISTRCIT REPORTED THREE SUICIDES EACH , CHANDRAPUR AND BULDHANA REPORTED ONE EACH AS CONFIRMED IN LOCAL NEWS PAPERS TODAY .

VJAS LEADER KISHOR TIWARI TODAY VISTED METIKHEDA AND PATAPANGARA IN YAVATMAL DISTRICT AND URGED GOVT. OF INDIA TO ARRANGE URGENT RELIEF AID TO THESE FARMERS WHO ARE DEEP DISTRESS AND FACING STARVATION.VJAS REQUESTED TO INDIAN GOVT. TO START DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD GRAIN UNDER PDS ANTYODAYA AND ANNAPURNA SCHEMES.
TIME HAS COME TO SAVE THESE DYING FARMING COMMUNITY OF VIDARBHA AS MORE THAN 5000 FARM SUICIDES HAVE BEEN REPORTED SINCE 2004 AND DAILY 3 TO 4 FARMERS KILLING THEMSLEVES AND GOVT. OF MAHARASHTRA AND INDIAN GOVT. HAS BEEN WATCHING AS THIRD PARTY SPECTETOR ,KISHOR TIWARI ADDED.

07/04/2007

Western Vidarbha :

1. SHYAMRAO KALBANDE, GRAMKATKHEDE, WASHIM
2. ANIL JADHAV, MORAD, WASHIM

06/04/2007

Western Vidarbha :

1. SHARAVAN RATHODE, ASOLA, YAVATMAL
2. BHAURAO MESHRAM, LOHARA, YAVATMAL
3. RAISINGH CHAVAN, BHULAI, YAVATMAL
4. RAMRAO UIKE, PITHORI, NAGPUR