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About 50,000 farmers from Maharashtra’s Nashik, known for its onion crop and vineyards, walked more than 180 kilometres southwest to enter Mumbai to press for their demands that range from a complete waiver of farm loans to higher support price.
India’s largest state economy has been battling a rural distress that’s expected to hurt growth in the ongoing financial year, according to its Economic Survey. Farm output is likely to contract after uneven monsoon rains and damage caused by a hailstorm last month.
Here’s what the farmers led by the CPI(M)-affiliated All India Kisan Sabha are demanding and why, according a statement on its website:
Maharashtra last year announced a loan waiver of up to Rs 1.5 lakh each for farmers across the state. Nearly 60 lakh farmers have applied for it. Yet, the disbursals were delayed after the state decided to reverify beneficiaries when multiple applications were found to have quoted the same Aadhaar ID.
Maharashtra’s gross state domestic product for 2017-18 is expected to grow at 7.3 percent, its slowest pace in three years, weighed down by a decline in farm output. That’s because its agricultural output is expected to contract 8.3 percent after uneven distribution of monsoon. Unseasonal rains and a hailstorm left the onion crop damaged in Nashik and adjoining areas. A pink bollworm attack hurt cotton farmers in the state, the largest producer after Gujarat.
The overall crop production is expected to decline 14.4 percent in terms of the gross state value added of crops, according to the Economic Survey. Here’s the estimated decline in kharif crop output :
(This article was first published on BloombergQuint.)
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