MSMEs in drought-hit Marathwada eagerly waiting for monsoon

Mumbai, June 7 (KNN) Although the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has estimated an above-average rainfall this year, the agro based industries in drought hit areas of Marathwada region which are mainly from the MSME sector are still waiting for the rains.

Rains, not only impact the farmers and crops directly, but it also has a huge impact on the agro-industries which incur heavy production losses, job cuts, monetary loss etc due to water deficiency.

The city is a major sugarcane and edible oils, soyabean, grapes and mango production centre. Latur has majority of small and medium scale industries that are agriculture based and not industry based.

The weather department had earlier said that monsoon should hit the Kerala coast on June 7, with an error margin of plus or minus four days.

The monsoon season delivers about 70% of India’s annual rainfall. Millions of farmers plant rice, corn, cane, cotton and soybean crops in the rainy months of June and July. It is a critical situation for country’s 263’million farmers because nearly half of the farmlands lack irrigation.

One such bone-dry region is Marathwada in Maharashtra which  is a major sugarcane and edible oils, soyabean, grapes and mango production centre.

Talking to KNN, Suraj Barge, Proprietor, Vaibhav Industries, Latur, has expressed his concerns towards the situation since last 2 years.

Barge said the condition of the agro-industries is same since last two to three years. Thousands of industries have closed due to severe water crisis.

He pointed that a steel plant too closed down recently making approximately 1700 labours unemployed. Some soybean extraction plants were also forced to shut down.

Monsoon is expected to hit the Marathwada region by mid of June.

Barge earlier said that “There are around 72-80 pulse mills here and water requirements in these units is huge. Half of them are shut down and half, which are running, are dependent on tankers for water.

Latur also has a large presence of Soyabean extraction plants and they also face same situation like the daal mills.

Talking about the sugar mills, which are around 8-9 in Latur, Barge said that usually these industries used to run till April or May every year but this time they closed down in December or January beginning itself.

And then there is also no water for farmers to grow sugarcane, the industrialist added. (KNN/ FA)