NAGPUR, August 13: Political uncertainty over the fate of the monopoly purchase scheme and outright bungling by the Shiv Sena-BJP government in making payments to farmers has resulted in an unprecedented shift this year from cotton to soyabean in Vidarbha.

In Nagpur division alone, the area under cotton cultivation has gone down by more than 50,000 hectares since the alliance government took over. At this rate, Vidarbha will no longer remain the major cotton producer in the country.

According to official figures available with the Agriculture Department, cotton cultivation has been reported this year on 2.15 lakh hectares. In this division, cotton is mostly grown in the districts of Nagpur, Wardha and parts of Chandrapur.

Despite various problems related to cotton cultivation, the farmers persisted with it as the main cash crop owing to assured payments through the Monopoly Cotton Procurement Scheme. The scheme has been on tenterhooks ever since Shankarrao Chavan, as Chief Minister, gave an undertaking to the Central Government that the scheme would not be run on a permanent basis. Each year now, the State government has to keep knocking at the Centre's doors to renew the permission. The first installment that the alliance government announced after coming to power was worth a whopping Rs 2,100 per quintal, whereas the open market prices around the country were barely around Rs 1,500.

When the alliance government announced a huge price in one stroke at the beginning of the purchase season, the Federation which actually makes the payments faced an unprecedented funds crisis and payments to farmers were delayed. It all resulted in the Federation incurring a massive loss of Rs 700 crore in the 1995-96 season. The next season, the Congress-controlled State Cooperative Bank was not willing to extend loans to the Federation. A little wiser by then, the alliance government first announced a support price of just Rs 1,400 per quintal and two subsequent installments of Rs 350 each.

But where was the money? With great difficulty the Federation managed to get Rs 250 crore from the State Government and some more funds from urban cooperative banks, BMRDA and CIDCO. Even then, the last installment of Rs 350 of the 1996 season is unpaid even now to a large number of cotton growers. Naturally, the farmers decided to give up cotton.Increasingly, farmers are turning towards soyabean.The area under soyabean in Nagpur division was 2.89 lakh hectares in 1994-95 and so far in the 1997-98 season, it is reported to have crossed 4.50 lakh hectares.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.