- MIDDAY SPECIAL -

INDIA'S COTTON FARMERS' SUICIDES CONTINUING FARMERS GATHER at a recent meeting in the Nagpur area to hear proposed government solutions to the country's ongoing cotton farming dilemma. Previous government assistance has fallen way short of goals for alleviating the plight of farmers and surviving widows. Farmers meeting photo from Vidarbha@gmail.com

Toll Over 8 Thousand Last 4 Years - C O T T O N C A L L E D K I L L E R C R O P - (Vidarbha, India) - Pradip Kumar Maitra was quoted in an email to Midday as saying, "Three debt-trapped farmers commit suicide every day in Vidarbha. And the cotton has now been dubbed "the killer crop" as the growers could not get the reasonable returns because of the high cost of farming. Tiwari urged the government to promote low-cost farming so farmers can earn enough returns for surviving. Maitra added, "Two relief packages have been announced for the region by the state and union government since December 2005, but the suicides continue. The suicide rate that was declining since December, drastically went up from February this year." Independent sources report more than 500 farmer suicides have occurred already this year, leaving many grieving and destitute widows looking after their starving children. The Hindustan Times mid-April summaries for Nagpur elaborated on two recent deaths: Venkat Reddy was the cousin of former chairman of Jhari Panchayat Samiti, Ramanna Yelktiwar. Twenty-seven-year old, Venkat was a progressive farmer who consumed poison on a Saturday morning. He had taken a loan of Rs 35,000 from the local State Bank of India and could not repay the loan because of not getting remunerative prices of raw cotton, reports said. Another victim, Bhimrao Bone (65) ended his life by hanging himself. Extreme indebtedness and crop failure were said to be the cause of these suicides. From VIdarbha Jan Andolan Samiti - SuicideEcho@gmail.com Send Midday your News & Comment. You may see it here! MyBuzz@Midday.com