Pumpsets slipping into the borewells is no less a calamity for Telangana farmers than having to repeatedly dig the unyielding earth for water.

Instances of farmers committing suicide after their pumpsets fell into the wells, are aplenty in Vikarabad district.

“My husband was trying to retrieve the pumpset for repair, when it slipped and got stuck in the bore hole. As we could not organise funds immediately for its removal, our crop of groundnut and paddy totally wilted and died. Unable to bear the loss, my husband hanged himself,” sobbed V.Madhavi, a widow, who attended the skill development workshop organised by ‘Our Sacred Space’ in collaboration with Kisan Mitra, for bereaved family members of the farmers who committed suicide, in Dharur on Saturday.

Ch. Jaya is one more such woman farmer, who lost her husband to pumpset slip. The couple borrowed for digging two borewells, and the second one yielded water. When the pumpset failed after a few years, her husband tried to recover it, but it slipped, jamming and rendering the borewell useless.

Obstructs water

The couple then tried unsuccessfully to have it retrieved through professional rig operator. The failed attempt cost them dearly, as it could not remove the obstruction.

“Once the pumpset slips and gets stuck, the well does not yield water till it is removed. We abandoned the borewell and tried afresh for one more, which did not yield water,” said Jaya, explaining the run up of events that prompted her husband to kill himself.

The rig operators charge as high for retrieval of the pumpset as they do for digging a fresh borewell, which results in double blow for the farmers. Sangameshwar, field coordinator from Kisan Mitra says, majority of the farmer suicides in Vikarabad district are owing to frequent expenditure on borewells, and low price for the crop, especially cotton. It is high time they shifted to millets, dumping cotton, he says.