Basappa, a landless agricultural worker in Chawadal village in Haveri district, is planning to sell his most prized possession — his pair of bullocks. Normally, he and his livestock would be busy ploughing the fields in the village between June and July for which he earns Rs. 100 a day. Hit hard by the severe drought this year, he now plans to sell the pair of bullocks, which he bought for Rs. 50,000 a couple of years ago. “With some luck I will get Rs. 12,000,” he says.
The sale of livestock, and human migration in search of work, are among the first signs of rural distress. Farmers like Basappa who regard their livestock as assets that provide a measure of insurance in normal years, now find them a burden.
Karnataka has a livestock population of about 1.4 lakh but the fodder output from farms has been stagnant in the last few years — hovering around the 7,000-tonne mark in the last three years. In fact, fodder output last year was below levels attained in either of the previous two years. According to figures furnished by the State Government to the Centre recently, the availability of fodder this July was 51 lakh tonnes, just half of what it was a year earlier.
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An official in the Agriculture Department attributed the stagnant output to the shift towards commercial crops in recent years, which yield much less fodder than food crops. The State government has announced a two-pronged strategy to address the shortage. First, it has said that it would source fodder from States such as Punjab. It has said it is opening goshalas, effectively cattle relief stations. According to the government, 128 ghoshalas had become operational by the end of July. It said it would open 90 more soon.
No goshalas
However, farmers like Basappa do not have the option of leaving their cattle at a goshala, simply because there are none in the entire district. But even if they did have the option, they are sceptical about leaving their cattle at a goshala. “I have to incur a substantial expense to transport my bullocks to the goshala,” he says. He also fears that it would take a long time to get his cattle back, if and when things get better. “I just cannot afford any delay because people in the village are just waiting to plough their fields,” he said.
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An official of the Animal Husbandry Department in Haveri told The Hindu that there are no plans to start goshalas in the district. “The situation has improved in the last week because of the rain,” he said. But asked whether the rains would alleviate the immediate problem of the scarcity of fodder faced by people in villages such as Chawadal, he admitted that there are “some pockets of acute scarcity” in the district.”
The official also claimed that 13,000 mini kits of fodder seeds had been distributed — 2,000 in the last week — in the district.
Each kit, he said, would yield about five tonnes of green fodder. The problem is that the crop cycle — from sowing to harvesting of the fodder crop — is 50 to 70 days.
For people like Basappa, the government’s scheme is only of academic interest — they have no land to grow fodder anyway.