MYSURU: With sugar factories closed and crops withered due to continuous drought, now it is the turn of jaggery units to shut shops.
These jaggery units were a sign of local economy generating employment for 30,000-40,000 people in Mandya villages that have no other source of income. The monsoon failure and low storage in reservoirs forced a ban on taking up sugarcane crops in Cauvery command area. This has reduced sugar cultivation by 80 percent in two years.
Mandya district which produced 75 lakh tonnes of sugarcane catering to five sugar factories has no standing sugarcane crop now. The sugar cultivation area produced 45 lakh tonne in the district. While 5 lakh tonnes of sugarcane was used as seed, another 10 lakh tonne was used by local jaggery units.
However, some farmers managed to save their crops by using irrigation pump sets. Some 10-15 per cent operational jaggery units have managed to get sugarcane from neighbouring Tumakuru and Hassan districts.
The Mandya APMC which used to receive 80 truckloads of jaggery earlier, now receives less than five truckloads. The jaggery units employed 2-35 people for processing, harvesting, jaggery making and transportation are now closed with no signs of revival.
In some places, the jaggery units that managed to buy sugarcane from neighbouring districts have no sufficient water to make jaggery. The depletion of the underground water table and dried up borewells have added to the existing problems. Meanwhile, prices of jaggery have shot up and they are likely to increase further during festivals later this year.
The labourers who demanded Rs 400 per day for harvesting sugarcane are ready to work for `250. This stems from reduced cane production. Now they harvest paddy in Visveswaraya canal area (up to 32 km) only as the Cauvery water could not reach or save standing crops in tail ends in VC canal achukat. While the Chikkadevaraja canal was closed for renovation works.
Krishna, a sugarcane grower, said each jaggery unit made an average of `6-7 lakh in a season. Drought and fall in reservoir levels have wiped out Rs 8-10 crore worth jaggery in the units that were spread in rural areas. He said the farmers have lost more than Rs 1,500 crores in a year as they have given up sugarcane cultivation and also lost paddy crops.
KRRS leader Nanjunde Gowda said the jaggery units were a sign of prosperity in villages. With no source of income, the farmers have no option but to migrate or to dispose of their land. He fears the worsening economic condition of families would end up increasing in farmer suicides if the government fails to take concrete steps and if there are no pre-monsoon showers in a couple of weeks.
Krishnaram, a teacher, said the number of women travelling by trains to Bengaluru and Mysuru has swelled in recent days as they have started working in semi-urban pockets to earn their bread and butter.
He says that with “lack of vision of policy-makers, failure to encourage agriculture-based industries and initiatives to generate employment locally, it would be difficult to check migration and tendency to commit suicides”. The irrigation authorities’ failure to release water into irrigation canals has worsened drinking water scarcity in Mandya.