11 tehsils reel, activists seek crop inspections

Pune: Farmers and activists in Solapur have urged the administration to immediately conduct crop inspections and prepare panchanamas following govt’s declaration of drought in 11 tehsils on Saturday.The identified tehsils are North Solapur, South Solapur, Barshi, Akkalkot, Mohol, Madha, Karmala, Pandharpur, Sangola, Malshiras and Mangalwedha.With crops nearing the final stage of cultivation, farmers fear delays could affect assessment of losses and access to relief measures.Activist Sandeep Kumbhar said officials should begin the exercise without delay and complete it on a “war footing”.“The growth of sugar cane fields across the district is stunted and the overall harvest will be extremely low. Usually, farmers use sugar cane income for fruit plantations. However, this time they won’t have adequate capital to be used for fruit plantations. This will have an impact on the overall harvest of fruit,” said activist Pramod Kapse from Madha tehsil.Farmers have also expressed worries over the fodder crisis particularly because their milk production has hampered significantly. They said that they can not afford to spend more on fodder.“Govt should start fodder camps or at least start providing fodder to the farmers in affected regions/villages. So that the local dairy economy will sustain,” Ashok More, a farmer from Madha tehsil, said.