Leeladhar Prahalad Wahane (right), works in a school, Ridhora, Nagpur, Maharashtra.

“When farming fails for 5 years straight and you can’t repay the loans, there is no option. In ten acres of land, we grow soya bean, cotton, and turmeric. When your input cost is much more than what we get back then there is a problem somewhere. Tejram Prahalad Wahane, my elder brother, committed suicide recently. He didn’t speak much about the stress he was going through, all he would say was, ‘It’s looking a bit tough to repay the loans.’ The loans were of 5 lakhs from the banks and some more from the local moneylenders. The money was spent on buying inputs for the land and having a borewell dug, which did not yield water. The 3 lakh loan he took from ICICI bank went up to 5 lakh and 2 lakh loan from the cooperative bank went up to 3.5 lakh.”

Native Picture: How is the situation now?

“Now the situation is the same, nothing much has changed. Farming is not viable at all. We did not get the rains when needed and it has rained so much that our crops are damaged.”

Native Picture:

Do you plan on farming in the future?

“I don’t know, I really see no benefit in farming.”