http://www.dnaindia.com/Vidarbha farm widows to protest during Obama visit
Vidarbha farm widows will hold a protest tomorrow to draw attention of US President Barack Obama ahead of his visit to Mumbai on Saturday, as huge subsidy by US on American cotton resulted into more than two lakh farmers committing suicide in India.
The widows will light candles as a protest at Hiwara in Zari Taluka of neighbouring Yavatmal district, which has a highest number of farmers suicides.
The farm widows want to draw the attention of Obama towards the fact that huge subsidy by US on American cotton led to most severe agrarian crisis in the country resulting into more than 2,16,000 cotton farmers committing suicides in India, Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti president Kishore Tiwari said in a release here today.
"Our aim is to inform Obama that Vidarbha cotton farmers mass genocide is the result of American policies to protect their cotton farmers and claim that Bt Cotton has brought genetic revolution in agriculture is hoax when 80% of three million cotton growers families are in deep distress and debt and one farmer is committing suicide every eight hours," he said.
He alleged that American Cotton and Bt Cotton have ruined rural economy of cotton growing Vidarbha region with more than 10,000 cotton growers in Vidarbha, who opted for Bt cotton seed, committed suicide.
The farmers' despondency was caused due to the delay in cotton procurement and forceful loan recoveries by banks and private micro finance agencies as government-run banks failed to provide fresh loans to distressed farmers even after intervention of administration, Tiwari alleged.
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