Maya Khodve is an activist, videographer and Community Correspondent, who lives in a Nashik slum. Nashik Slum has seen some improvements in recent years as India is developing, such as much improved electricity and gutters - the latter being installed in part because of pressure from one of her videos. Yet, toilets and running water are yet to be installed…

Maya Khodve

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Heavy, unseasonal rains in the month of October have destroyed the crops of local farmers of Nashik, our Community Correspondent Maya Khodve reports. Farmers have spent a large sum to buy seeds and fertilisers to cultivate their land. They were hoping that the harvest would be good. But it has all been washed away. To make matters worse, whatever is left of the crops is being eaten away by pests. Neither the farmers have anything to eat themselves nor do they have anything to feed their cattle with. During a normal harvest season, the cattle would feed on the chaff from the harvested crops. But this time, everything has been destroyed. The unseasonal rains are the effects of large scale fossil fuel burning and the resultant climate change.

"No government official or talathi has visited us ever since the rains started. The Talathi of our constituency is not even bothered about us," said farmer Arjun Jadhav from Kadavaipada. Talathi, also known as Kulkarni or Patwari in some other states is a village accountant that maintains village crop and land records and also helps in collection of taxes and irrigation dues.

If you wish to help the farmers of Nashik receive government help and intervention, please call on the number of the District Agriculture Officer provided at the end of the video.

Also see: Farmers Crop Spoiled, Income of Whole Year is at Risk | COVID-19