Three years of poor rainfall have hit Latur in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra. In the last four months 370 farmers have committed suicide and the total number now stands at 1,450 in the last 16 months. The worst hit are those who invested in sugarcane and are now witness to complete destruction of their crops. Sugarcane consumes more water than other crops and with the region receiving half the annual rainfall in the last three years, many farmers are now staring at near life-and-death situations. Water shortages have been blamed on sugarcane and this might be partly true. Officials, on the other hand, are quick to point out that sugar factories existed in the region for over 20 years and during good rainfall years farmers benefited from growing sugarcane.
This hypothesis might not be off the mark, but the number of deaths is alarming and the State government should have put an early warning system in place to advise farmers on crop choices. That apart, State governments in conjunction with the Centre must put safety nets in place to help farmers tide over difficult situations as the one being experienced in Latur. Quick relief is the need of the day so that farmers, who have their back to the wall, are prevented from taking the ultimate step.
