PUNE: Amid drought, the Jalna administration has launched the “Satkari Samvad Sabha” initiative, deploying three-member teams across all eight talukas to interact with distressed farmers.
The teams, comprising an agriculture assistant, a talathi and a police patil, hold discussions in the presence of the village sarpanch. Each interaction lasts more than an hour, with teams covering the district’s nearly six lakh farmers in 900 villages.
The initiative comes against the backdrop of a history of farmer suicides in Marathwada. Jalna alone has recorded 60 farmer suicides since January this year, attributed to agrarian distress and domestic problems.
While villagers have welcomed the outreach effort, they emphasise that counselling alone cannot address their immediate needs, particularly as they grapple with stress over money, drinking water, cattle fodder, and mounting pressure to repay loans.
District collector Ashima Mittal said, “The idea is to allow distressed farmers to share their pain with the teams, which can help reduce their emotional stress. They should not take any extreme steps and must immediately contact local government officials if they face any problem.”
She has directed the teams to continue the counselling sessions in every village once a fortnight until further orders.
Ravindra Mohite, an agriculture assistant in Shevda village of Ambad taluka, said farmers in the five villages he had visited were worried about how they would sustain their families after crop failures left them with little or no income.
{{/usCountry}}Ravindra Mohite, an agriculture assistant in Shevda village of Ambad taluka, said farmers in the five villages he had visited were worried about how they would sustain their families after crop failures left them with little or no income.
{{/usCountry}}“They are equally concerned about water availability for themselves and their cattle over the next eight months, until the next monsoon. Many cannot afford to buy fodder for their livestock, while those wanting to sell their cattle are unable to find buyers,” he said.
Farmers are also seeking employment to tide them over the crisis. Satish Dage, an agriculture assistant in Jafrabad taluka, said many had expressed a desire to work under the Viksit Bharat—Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin).
“We have assured them that the state government will extend all possible help. They need to face these challenges with courage, and we are assuring every family that the administration stands with them,” Dage said.
The mounting pressure of loan repayments is another source of anxiety. Santosh Lokhande, sarpanch of Khasgaon village in Jafrabad taluka, said more than 90% of the village’s 1,000 farmers had borrowed money for kharif cultivation. Still, crop failure had left them unable to repay their loans.
“They fear moneylenders and recovery agents could turn up at their homes even at odd hours and press them to repay. With their crops failing, none of these farmers is in a position to make the payments,” Lokhande said.
Gorakhnath Kakade, a farmer from Dudipuri village, said the government must urgently arrange fodder supplies and employment opportunities to help families meet their basic expenses.
“Otherwise, people will be forced to migrate to cities in search of work,” he said.
Bhausaheb Tapare, a resident of Panegaon, said several farmers had nearly exhausted their fodder stocks. “The government must immediately supply fodder for our cattle,” he said.