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Some farmers in Latur district, Maharashtra, are cutting standing sugarcane to feed their cattle after poor rainfall left them short of fodder. The choice protects livestock in the immediate term but sacrifices sugarcane that could otherwise be sold as a cash crop. The reports describe particular farmers and conditions—not a practice adopted by every farmer in the district.
Why are farmers cutting sugarcane for cattle feed?
A PTI report carried by Hindustan Times on October 3, 2026 says poor rainfall dried grazing areas and reduced green-fodder reserves in Latur. Farmers described in the report are using sickles to cut standing cane and feed it to their animals because they have no adequate fodder supply.
That is an urgent household decision, not a cost-free substitute for a fodder crop: cane cut for feed cannot be kept to harvest and sell as sugarcane. The report frames the choice as giving up expected cash-crop income to keep livestock fed.
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Narayan Gude of Kavha village told PTI that he farms seven acres and keeps seven buffaloes, two cows and several calves. He said his herd’s milk output had fallen to 10–12 litres a day and that the animals needed nearly half a tonne of sugarcane daily. These are Gude’s figures for his own farm, not district averages or independently measured totals.
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He also said his soybean yield could fall below half a quintal per acre. His household is feeding cattle chopped sugarcane mixed with soybean residue. Gude appealed for official fodder camps, saying: “There is simply no fodder because the rains failed. We have no choice but to harvest standing sugarcane crops.”
How widespread is the drought?
The figures in news coverage describe different geographic scales and should not be conflated:
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- Maharashtra drought declaration: The October 3 PTI report says the state declared 265 of its 358 talukas—74%—drought-affected. It reports crop-loan restructuring, land-revenue concessions and power-bill subsidies among the announced measures. The underlying state notification was not available in the cited reporting, so these details are attributed to that report.
- Latur and Dharashiv rainfall: In September, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told Hindustan Times the two districts had received around 50% of normal rainfall. He warned of a serious drinking-water and fodder shortage and said soybean crops had withered.
- Statewide rainfall: A Maharashtra crop-situation report placed before the state cabinet put rainfall at 80.82% of the state average from June 1 through September 21. That is a statewide measure, not a Latur-specific rainfall figure.
Fadnavis’s remarks and the statewide figure were reported by Hindustan Times in September 2026. Neither figure means rainfall was uniform within a district or across the state.
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Fodder movement restrictions were also reported
A separate Times of India report said Latur and Nanded restricted outward movement of green and dry fodder, grass and cattle feed in early October amid shortage concerns. It attributed Latur’s order to the district collector under the Disaster Management Act, 2005. The report’s underlying order, any exceptions and the measure’s continuing status are not established here; the precise legal terms and duration should not be inferred from the news account alone.
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What drought-planning documents recommend
ICAR-CRIDA’s 2011 Latur district contingency plan lists drought-response ideas including collecting crop residues, using sugarcane tops as fodder, making silage from green fodder and establishing village fodder banks. These are planning recommendations, not confirmation that fodder banks or silage programs are operating in affected villages now.
Historical context also matters: a 2018 NABARD Maharashtra state report noted that reduced jowar cultivation had contributed to fodder-availability problems in its surveyed Latur context. That observation helps explain a potential structural vulnerability, but it is not a measurement of current fodder supply.
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