Dhandhuka farmers may face crop failure,fodder shortage

Dhandhuka and surrounding areas had faced rain fury and heavy inundation last year resulting in several houses getting damaged and crops failing. This monsoon,they received less than normal rain. Sources in the Dhandhuka Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) said the crop condition was bad compared to earlier years because the final spell of rain eluded the area.

APMC secretary D A Chavda himself has three-fourth of his 200 bigha land without any crop. “If the situation continues,incidents of loot may occur because nearly 60 per cent of farmers are poor and they have got no return,even as they spent a fortune on seeds and fertilisers besides other farm inputs,” he said.

District Collector Harit Shukla said that people “have not approached me with any complaint directly”,adding they might have approached lower-level officials. He further said the sub-divisional magistrates in the areas concerned had held a meeting recently and that “they were monitoring the situation closely about the situation on drinking water,fodder,livelihood and irrigation water”.

Although he admitted to the fact that the rainfall in the area was less than normal and the crops suffered to some extent,Shukla said all this “does not warrant for extreme emergency measure taken during scarcity period” because despite scanty rains,there was no total monsoon failure.