The Hindu Business Line : Good crop brings smiles back to M.P. farmers

Farmers waiting after selling soyabean at the Chawni market in Indore. It takes time for the produce to be weighed and payment made to the farmers. - - M.R. Subramani

Recently in Indore

PUROSHOTAM Mukhati, a soyabean farmer of Tillaur Khurd village near Indore in Madhya Pradesh, planned to buy a Mahindra Scorpio from the gains he has made from growing soyabean. He, however, has now opted to wait until he harvests potato in a month-and-a-half.

Deoranj Gujjar of Balwara village in Khargone district wants to deepen his tubewell with the money he has got from his soyabean.

Anand Ambaram Thakur of Umariya village near Indore proposes to clear the loans taken for purchasing his tractor after saving a good sum from his soyabean and groundnut crops. And then, he plans to buy farm equipment, possibly a thresher that can be run by a tractor.

Some farmers like Ramesh Onkar of Rajpura village in Dhar district also plan to settle the crop loans they have availed themselves of during the kharif season. There seems to be a method in what these farmers of Madhya Pradesh are doing. Caution is the watchword. Not surprisingly, since they have come through three torrid years of drought.

"We first plan to plough back our gains into our field. We next want to save the left-overs and wait for the rabi harvest," says Mukesh Sura of Dhudiya village.

Most of the farmers in Madhya Pradesh are now fully engaged in rabi sowing — from wheat to gram to mustard and potato.

There is renewed enthusiasm among the farmers, thanks to the good rainfall and attractive prices for the kharif crops such as soyabean, cotton, groundnut and cereals despite rise in production.

While oilseed prices have increased because of the shortfall in the US crop, demand for exports has propped up cotton prices.

The first signs of recovery are coming in from fertiliser outlets. "We plan to sell at least four tonnes of urea for kharif against last year's 2.5 tonnes," says Ashok Agrawal, a fertiliser retailer at Barwah town, some 250 km from Bhopal.

Farmer cooperatives confirm the uptrend in demand for urea and super phosphate. "Demand for super phosphate and urea is currently the highest in three years. We have sold 600 bags (of 50-kg) of urea till now against just 250 bags sold last year. Similarly, in the case of super phosphate, we have sold about 800 bags against 300 bags last year," says Mr Ambaram Varma, President, Dhudiya branch of Indore Premier Cooperative Bank.

The Balwara Farmers' Co-operative Society President, Mr Shiv Shankar Sharma, says : "Urea offtake has doubled compared to last year."

Similarly, these cooperatives have also begun to report good recovery of loans.

"Our recovery in October has been a record Rs 10 lakh against less than Rs 1 lakh all these years," says Mr Varma.

The good crop has set the industry going. "Good crop will mean the dependent industry will be engaged in processing for a longer time," says Mr Rajesh Agrawal, Chairman, Soyabean Processors Association of India.

That the industry has got going is evident from what is happening at various markets.

In markets such as Chawni Mandi in Indore limits, farmers find their produce being bought at competitive prices even as they bring it into the market. "We are getting the market prices, which are fair," say farmers.

By noon, most of the produce — be it soyabean, cotton, maize, gram or groundnut— the farmers bring are sold off. And before dusk, the farmers are back home with cash.

Industry players say the farmers' immediate attention is on rabi sowing. "Some of the farmers are so intelligent that they can get three crops in a year," they say.

"Immediately after soyabean, most farmers have gone in for potato. They will pluck it out in early December and go in for late wheat sowing sometime during the second half of the month," says Mr D.S. Kalra, Secretary-General, SOPA.

There is an unanimous view that the farmers could loosen their purse strings after harvesting potato. But their preferences seem to range from farm equipment to construction to saving only.

"We will go in for a pucca construction in our house," says Ambaram Thakur of Umeriya village.

Farmers do not seem to be too keen on buying gold or silver. "They are priced too high now," says Mukesh Sura of Dhudiya village.

But there are odd farmers who say: "Hum khoob piyenge aur khayenge is paise se." (We will make merry, drinking and eating with the money.)

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