Crop-cutting experiments in Purna taluka yield just half a kilo of soybean from 20 ares

Purna: Taluka farmers are facing a dry drought this year, and soybean sown after scanty rain has withered along with its pods. Agriculture and revenue officials are now carrying out crop-cutting experiments in all the taluka's revenue circles in the presence of farmers, and soybean cut and threshed from a 20-are plot in the selected fields is yielding just half a kilo.

The pods have flattened, and the beans inside are not even as big as jowar grains; the harvested soybean looks more like firewood for the stove than fodder for cattle. With the yield not matching even the seed that was sown, farmers are in despair, and in many places the crop will not cover the cost of threshing. Wells and borewells are also drying up in the intense heat, and villages are beginning to feel a water shortage.

Farmers complain that many days after drought was declared they have received no actual aid, and there is no clarity on how much will be paid per hectare. They say they have not yet received crop insurance compensation for last year's kharif season either. There are demands that the government go beyond inspections and loss assessments, immediately announce ₹50,000 a hectare and deposit it in farmers' accounts, and farmers appear to be preparing to agitate if aid does not come.

Source: Pudhari