Farmers in Osmanabad village send SOS as dry spell hits crops

About 200 farmers in Osmanabad district in Maharashtra's Marathwada region have sought aid from the government, failing which they said they should be allowed to commit suicide.
The farmers from village Sarola, 11 km from here, fear losing entire crop as the area did not receive enough rainfall for the fourth year in a row, though the monsoon remained satisfactory elsewhere in the state.
Vinod Bakale, president of Dhananjay Randive Mitra mandal, Sarola, submitted a memorandum to this effect to the district collector today.
The area had a drought for the last three years, but this year initially there was a good rainfall, so the farmers took loans for sowing operations.

But the rains are playing truant for about a month now and the farmers in the village fear losing the entire crop, Bakale said.
"We are requesting the government to carry out a crop inspection immediately and provide us assistance or allow us to commit suicide en masse," said Prashant Randive, member of the group.