Took a loan of three lakh rupees for farming. Took a loan of Rs 5 lakh for the house. The total loan is Rs eight lakh. Now the condition of the farm has become like this. I don't understand how to repay the loan. My wife goes to work and the house is run by her earnings. I don't sleep the whole night.
Ramchandra Rane, an orange farmer in Morshi in Amravati district of Maharashtra, was narrating his pain. Rane is a small farmer. He has two acres of land, on which an orange orchard is planted.
But this year very few oranges came on the trees. Due to the long gap between rains, the size of the oranges planted did not increase. That's why they are not finding buyers in the market. Now how will we repay the loan and how will life continue? This is the question before Rane.
Orange is cultivated on about 1 lakh 50 thousand hectares of land in Vidarbha. Business worth crores of rupees is associated with this. Of these, most oranges are grown in Varud and Morshi areas of Nagpur district and Amravati district. Katol and Narkhed talukas of Nagpur are known for the cultivation of Mausambi. But now the condition of the farmers of these areas is very bad.
Many oranges of Ambiya Bahar fell from the trees. Those that remained did not increase in size. By now the oranges of Mriga Bahar should also have grown up. But their size has also not increased. The growth of oranges stopped due to long gap between rains. Not only this, due to drought orange trees have also started drying up.
Girish Kale, a farmer of Dapori village of Morshi taluka, has an orange orchard of seven acres. But more than half of the trees in his garden have dried up due to drought. Now they have also started removing dry trees.
Girish explains, "The temperature reached 47 to 48 degrees in summer. We somehow saved the orchards in that summer. But even during the rainy season, there was less rainfall. Due to the extreme heat and less rainfall, the orchards dried up."
"Somehow the oranges of Mrig Bahar were planted, but their size is small. The oranges of Ambia Bahar also did not grow big. That is why traders are not coming here."
Girish has taken a loan of Rs 5 lakh from a private moneylender. But now he says that he has no option but to sell two acres of land to repay the loan and continue his life.
Morshi and Warud are areas where there is severe shortage of underground water. It is not allowed to dig new wells or borewells here because the water level has gone very low. Farmers say that due to less rainfall, now even the water from the wells is not sufficient for the gardens. The water level in the wells has reached its lowest level in October itself.
Oranges are visible on the trees in the field of farmer Rupesh Walke of Morshi taluka. But he says that their number is less than every year. Rupesh says, "This year the heat was very hot. At the same time, 70 percent of the oranges of Ambiya Bahar fell from the trees."
The condition of monsoon gardens in Nagpur district is also no different. Swapnil Dhote, a farmer from Yerla village of Katol, says, "Last year, 30 kg of seasonal fruits were found from one tree. This year, there are only three kg of fruits on one tree. A maximum of seven to eight kilos of seasonal fruits are visible on some trees."
Manoj Jawanjal, director of MahaOrange, fears that if the orchards dry up, farmers will be set back by 15 to 20 years. He says, "The water in the wells is not coming as much as it should. Right now we can save the gardens till February. Nothing will happen to the gardens till February. The real problem will start after that."
