Farmers complain of dry spell induced crop loss in excluded talukas from drought GR

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Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis interacts with people while inspecting the areas affected by the drought-like situation at Mohagavhan, Mangrulpir taluka, in Washim. File photo: @CMOMaharashtra X via ANI

 Official rainfall data from Automatic Weather Stations show 94% of normal rainfall, leading Mudkhed and Mukhed talukas in Nanded district of the Marathwada region to be excluded from the drought-hit list, while wells in the same banana-growing belt are running dry, affecting banana plantations. Farmers in these talukas said they have suffered losses, but because of faulty weather stations, they were left off the list and did not receive any help.

“Weather stations failed to record rainfall, or some other technical errors have removed us from the drought list; I don’t understand this injustice. Meet anyone, ask anyone in Mudkhed; everyone has to tell the story of crop loss,” said Vilas Mugat (40), a banana and soybean farmer from Mudkhed taluka in Nanded. Vilas has suffered banana crop failure for two consecutive years. The June 2025 crop, due for harvest in August 2026, couldn’t survive the extreme temperatures and was overripe, while the crop sown in June 2026 has started drying up as his well has no water. 

Vilas used eight acres of his land for banana farming with an investment of ₹5 lakhs. “For both years, I at least expect ₹10-12 lakhs of income,” said Vilas. Similarly, Balaji Kusumwad (40) from Shemboli village of Mukhed taluka in Nanded had sown Soyabean on 3.5 acres of his land with a per-acre investment of ₹45,000. “How did they record rain at 95%, when the entire August and September have been a dry spell? This is the time soybean starts flowering, but deficient rainfall failed our crops,” said Balaji. 

Mukhed and Mudkhed are two talukas in the 16 talukas of Nanded district that were excluded from the list of drought talukas in the Government Resolution (GR) issued last week, announcing drought and imposing Trigger-1 in 265 talukas out of the total 358 talukas across the State. GR facilitates relief to 74 of Marathwada’s 76 talukas as drought-affected. Currently, Nanded has 4.25 lakh hectares of land under cultivation. 

The rainfall recorded in June, July, and August was 93.3% in Mukhed and 111.9% in Mudkhed; September recorded 63.1 in Mudkhed and 63.5% in Mukhed. From June to September 30, 94.2% of rainfall was recorded in Mudkhed and 86.6% in Mukhed. The two talukas were excluded based on two technical points: one is a deviation of rainfall above 20% and a three-week dry spell, as per the Nanded Collector Office. 

“Mudkhed and Mukhed couldn’t meet these criteria. In July, average rainfall was 120%, whereas in August it was 40%; in September, it was none. So, this irregular distribution of rainfall caused this issue. Besides, in between, these talukas received meagre rainfall of 3 mm or 4 mm, breaking the cycle of three weeks,” said Rahul Kardile, District Collector of Nanded. 

Mr. Kardile also pointed out that despite these technicalities, the subcommittee is going to do ground-truthing in these regions.

Pankaj Adkine (44), a banana farmer who lives in Hingoli district, a neighbouring district to Nanded, says farmers are in a deep trap as the loan waiver is yet to settle, and farmers have already taken huge loans from private lenders as banks refused to give loans. 

“With the ruined banana this season, it has put me in a situation of how to repay the loans, which are charging hefty interest. For instance, a bank charges ₹8000 interest on a loan of ₹1 lakh; the same private lender will charge Rs. 30000. I am worried about how to pay ₹1,30,000,” said Pankaj. 

Pankaj’s relatives stay in Mukhed. He says, “The government aid doesn’t look promising, as we saw in the heavy flash floods last year, but at least we have hope that we will get some aid. My cousin back in Mukhed is disappointed over the exemption of his taluka. He has similar loans to pay.”

“When people come for panchnamas, they ask for some commission even when the area has been declared drought-hit. If they come for ground-truthing and imaging, one can imagine the level of transactions that could happen,” alleged Sandipkumar Deshmukh Baradkar, adding that the existing provisions of Article 371(2) for Marathwada must be effectively implemented.

Mr. Deshmukh has raised questions over the reported 94% rainfall recorded in Mudkhed taluka and asked why the Automatic Weather Stations were not inspected and demanded an inspection of the Automatic Weather Stations from the administration in April 2026 itself.

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