At the Khanapur cattle jatra at Mailar, Bandeppa Sangappa is desperate to sell his two bullocks. With his daughter’s wedding six months away and rabi crop failing because of drought, his hope is to get a good price for his bullocks. But then there are no buyers in sight.
The severe drought has upset the demand-and-supply equation at cattle fairs in Bidar district. A visit to the Amareshwar jatra in Aurad, Khanapur jatra at Mailar, and Mangalpet jatra in Bidar and Bhalki showed that there were more sellers than buyers.
Most farmers this correspondent spoke to said they would not have sold the animals if there was no drought. The irony is that it is precisely because of drought that there are no buyers.
Mr. Sangappa quoted a price of Rs. 42,000 per bullock, but said he would sell if someone would pay him even Rs. 35,000.
Similar was the plight of Vithalrao Chauhan, who came to the Bhalki market as he had “no cash in hand to do anything”. He said he had not touched his plough for three seasons now. “The last time we reaped some crop was in 2014 kharif season. I got some red gram and millets. Later, I lost two crops. I have not yet decided whether to prepare my land for sowing this year,” he said. He has a set of bullocks that are nine years old. “My brothers told me they would die in a few years anyway. But I just don’t want them to die in my house,” he said.
Baburao Rangare was visibly upset as he had come to Mangalpet jatra to sell his buffalo. “I should be the first farmer in seven generations of my family to sell a milch animal. We usually sell calves or bulls, and that is considered normal,” said the 65-year-old farmer, and added that he had not seen such a crisis situation since 1971.
‘Sales down by 40 p.c.’
Santosh Kumar, a cattle trade registration officer for the Bhalki taluk Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee, said the sales were at least 40 per cent lesser than last year. “In Khanapur we had around 300 sellers but barely 100 transactions took place,” he said.
Deputy Director of Animal Husbandry D. Govindappa said the first goshala had been opened in Changalera village in Humnabad taluk. Farmers could leave their animals in the goshala for free. Depending on demand, goshalas would be opened in all taluks, he said.
