Paddy yield down 15%, small farmers on the brink in Punjab -Perneet Singh & Parvesh Sharma

-The Tribune

Debt trap worsens; Govt must step in, says BKU leader

Mansa/ Sangrur: With paddy production recording a decline of 10 to 15 per cent owing to untimely rains, small and marginal farmers are staring at misery, clueless as to how they will repay debts.

Farmers owning less than 5 acres of land and those cultivating land on lease are torn between meeting the needs of their families and repaying outstanding debts, that just keep mounting. What has hit them hard is the fact that land lease rates have gone up while the yield has dipped.

Gurcharan Singh of Khokhar Kalan village in Mansa owns 2 acres of land. He tilled another 2 acres on lease at Rs 50,000 per acre. However, the drop in yield has left him in dire straits. ?I had thought I would at least partially repay a Rs 3-lakh debt. Now I can?t even think of paying the interest.?

Gulab Singh too owns 2 acres and had taken 3 more acres on lease at Rs 55,000 per acre. He owes Rs 4 lakh to a bank and has already received a notice. Jagroop Singh of Ramanand village puts his crop loss at 8 quintals per acre. ?I have learnt the arhtiyas have begun imposing cuts on paddy with high moisture. This will further hit my earnings. I don?t know how I will make ends meet.?

 

Four days ago, Kulbir Singh (28), a debt-ridden farmer from Mansa, had committed suicide by consuming poison, disheartened at the fall in the paddy yield.

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