Rajkot (Gujarat): Farmers in Rajkot's Dhoraji have buried themselves neck-deep in the fields demanding euthanasia as they are not getting better payment for their crops on Sunday. The protesting farmers demanded that they want the government to take their lives.
They said not even a single agricultural produce is getting a reasonable rate. We continue to suffer losses due to poor rates. The government should consider our demands and provide adequate rates for the crops or allow us to avail euthanasia, the protesting farmers said.
Jites Vaghasia, a farmer who buried himself in the fields protesting over low rates said, "the price that we are offered when we go to sell onions is not even enough to pay the laborers. We do not even get the cost of transportation. Despite working so hard in the fields, farmers are not getting any benefit, instead, we all are going into debt."
Vaghasia said all the farmers from his village have kept their jewelry and houses mortgaged but were not able to even repay the interest for those loans they have taken for cultivation. He said, "everything has got expensive today, from seeds to diesel required in agricultural machinery to pesticides and fertilizers. Even the rate of petrol is also increasing and after bearing all these expenses, when we go to sell our crops, we are offered peanuts for our produce. How will the farmers survive this inflation?"
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We cannot even recover the cost of cultivation with the price offered and this is the reason why we are staging this protest. This is our request. Give us adequate rate for our crops or let us die. We cannot keep suffering with the losses. The government has to consider our demands, the farmer said.
