Nagubai Chaudhary, 52, always believed that the land would take care of her, and it did. For as long as she can remember. But in 2025, parts of western and central Maharashtra received unseasonal rains. The sudden flood destroyed the Kharif crop.
When the land started drying up, Nagubai and her husband, Malinath, 60, had to quickly think about how to survive this season. “We paid to level the damaged topsoil, and sowed onions. They usually yield early. But the crop failed. This led to more debt,” said Nagubai, wiping her tears with the end of her floral pink sari.
Then, her husband died. He had to repay the loan of ₹14 lakh taken for farming and the hospitalization expenses of Malinath.
Nagubai and her husband owned 1.5 acres of land in Chincholi village in Dharashiv district of Maharashtra. He was forced to sell one acre of land to repay the loan. “I have lost my husband, land and a crop,” she says.
Maharashtra’s agriculture department estimates that 30 lakh farmers were affected by the floods last year, which destroyed 65 lakh hectares of crop area during August and September. Due to the rain, soybean fields were destroyed in Vidarbha, onions rotted in Nashik, pulses were destroyed in Marathwada and paddy fields in low-lying areas were flooded.
The Maharashtra government announced a relief package of ₹31,628 crore on 7 October. In the months that followed, many farmers say that despite government assessments, they have no clear idea of how much they are owed. Nagubai says she was promised only ₹2,500 two months before her husband died. Sitting in a small pink room, one corner of which has been designated as the kitchen, she explains: “Even this money is stuck because I still don’t have my husband’s death certificate.”
According to the State Relief and Rehabilitation Department, compensation for crop loss was ₹18,500 per hectare for rain-fed land (1 hectare is 2.5 acres), ₹27,000 per hectare for irrigated land, ₹32,500 per hectare for horticultural or perennial land (like gardens). Additionally, if the topsoil was washed away, the farmer was to get ₹47,000 per hectare.
To help restore the topsoil, the government promised to employ people through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) scheme, which guarantees 100 days of work to the unemployed.
Nagubai now survives on the money left over from the land deal, Rs 1,500 per month from the Sanjay Gandhi grant-in-aid scheme for people below the poverty line, and paid work under MNREGA. A portion of the topsoil on her land was washed away, she says, but she has spent ₹14,000 to restore it. No government help was received. Many farmers from the six worst-affected districts of Marathwada as well as Solapur in western Maharashtra say they have not received full compensation. Many farmers now pay from their own pockets or take second loans to improve their lands and prepare for Rabi crops.
In Dharashiv, Maharashtra government has identified 7.03 lakh farmers affected by the floods. Collector Kirti Kiran Pujar says that till now compensation has been given to 5.2 lakh people. “The rest will receive the funds after e-KYC (Know Your Customer) is done. Most of the farmers have received relief. Relief will be given under MNREGA and top soil-replacement funds as per the claims raised by the farmers with the gram panchayat.” The ministry, headquartered in Maharashtra’s administrative headquarters in Mumbai, did not respond to queries on data on affected areas.
During the announcement of the relief package, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had said, “The package will be distributed to farmers covering 29 (out of 36) districts, 253 (out of 358) talukas and over 2,000 revenue areas before Diwali (in 2025). However, no one can compensate 100% of the financial and mental distress of farmers.”
According to the Collector’s office, 36 farmers committed suicide in Dharashiv from January to April, 2026, while from July to December, 2025, 78 farmers committed suicide.
lost fields
A group of farmers from Rajegaon village have gathered in a classroom of the government Zilla Parishad school. Narayan Deshmukh, 52, sits on a chair in front of a wall decorated with photographs of India’s leaders from different eras: Fatima Sheikh, Savitribai Phule, Indira Gandhi. “Time is running out. Gradually the size of my land will shrink. The rains caused huge damage. What will happen to our lost agricultural land? Restoration will cost more than government aid,” he says, then admits, “but every little amount counts.”
Narayan Deshmukh shows the part of his farm that was washed away after heavy rains. | Photo Credit: Emmanuel Yogini
Narayan’s farm is on the banks of the Terana River and receives at least 30% rainfall during the unseasonal rains. Guntas His 5 acres of land was washed away. “This has now become an annual occurrence, as rainfall increases. The government opens the gates of the Terana dam without informing and water seeps into the fields,” he says. Other farmers in the group also highlighted the same issue.
Dharashiv district consists of eight talukas including Umarga, where Rajegaon is located. It covers 7,569 square kilometers and is characterized by semi-arid terrain with hilly plateaus and river valleys. Last year the Manjara, Terna and Sina rivers were in spate, causing excess water to enter fields, affecting 159 villages in six talukas.
This was also experienced in Solapur, with soil erosion, sand accumulation and loss of fertility, especially in the river valleys. About 186 km from Rajegaon is Beed’s Majalgaon taluka, where Baliram Gholap, 30, who owns 5 acres of land, also says he has not received assistance for topsoil restoration.
“I got only ₹1,000. I don’t want money. Can the government get the restoration work done?” Depending on the quality of soil and labour, hiring an earth mover costs a minimum of ₹8,000, and the price of 1 brass ranges from ₹3,000 to 6,000, says Gholap.
Gholap, a cotton sower, suffered a loss of Rs 1.5 lakh due to unseasonal rains.
He says, “If the cotton had been harvested, I would have earned at least ₹3 lakh. I had borrowed ₹1 lakh and now I cannot repay the instalments.” He can no longer do farming and now works in a sugar factory at a salary of ₹10,000 per month. If he does not take leave, he gets ₹2,000 more. “I will take up farming next year, when conditions are favourable.”
Samadhan Mhaske, another farmer from Solapur’s Undargaon, near the Sena river, wipes his face and says, “Where is the ₹47,000 per hectare or the MNREGA help? At least 1.5 hectares of topsoil was washed away and huge mounds emerged.”
Along with his extended family members, he has 4 hectares of irrigated land and has so far received ₹35,000 through direct bank transfer. He also claims that 150 farmers like him have not received any compensation for topsoil restoration. There are 17 more villages near the Sina River, including Kewal, where the waters of the Sina River entered the fields and carried away a part of the fertile soil, leaving silt behind.
Low response to MNREGA
Under the MNREGA scheme, facial recognition is mandatory while logging in and out of the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) app. It has digital presence, geo-tag assets, Aadhaar-based payment system and real-time monitoring of operations. Many farmers are facing problems due to delays in Aadhaar verification and bank linking, leading to pending wage payments among elderly workers, women and people from remote villages struggling with biometric authentication and smartphone-based attendance.
Nagubai, who also has a job card under MNREGA, says, “The payment is irregular. I started working in January and got paid in March. That too ₹312 per day. If I had worked outside the government scheme, I could have earned ₹500.”
Government officials have acknowledged that offtake is low due to irregular payments.
Vidyasagar Gaikwad, 47, of Chincholi village in Dharashiv, works as an ad-hoc assistant to maintain the presence of MNREGA workers on the app. She and members of Maharashtra Gram Rozgar Sahayak Sanstha, a citizens’ group founded in 2016 to fight for the rights of MGNREGA workers, are at the protest.
He says that thumb impression and facial recognition are not reliable technologies. “At a time, there are 70 works going on in the village. I have to visit every place twice a day. And now with two shifts, almost four times a day, I cover a distance of at least 15 km. The government asks to spend two hours on this, but we spend almost half the day marking attendance,” he says.
hope of insurance
After unseasonal rains and flash floods, crops disappeared overnight and insurance survey teams emerged. According to the agriculture department, there were 49,601 claims amounting to more than ₹2,226 crore in Dharashiv alone. Many farmers say that they are waiting for the insurance money.
Avinash Deshmukh, farmer of Rajegaon. | Photo Credit: Emmanuel Yogini
In Rajegaon, Avinash Deshmukh, 42, a sunburnt farmer dressed in a clean white shirt and brown trousers, says pointing towards the river flowing near his farm: “It’s been nine months and I still haven’t been able to fix the potholes. I did everything as per the rules: got insured, paid the premium on time, reported the loss, yet I am still waiting for the insurance amount.”
To calculate insurance claims, the Government of Maharashtra uses a combination of crop cutting experiments (CCE) and satellite imagery. Under CCE, the State conducts sample harvest in selected farms of a village or insurance unit area. They harvest, weigh the produce and estimate the average yield per hectare, giving them the actual yield (AY) for that area. This assessment year is compared to the yield limit (YT), which is calculated in advance using historical production data. If AY is less than YT, farmers become eligible for compensation.
Agriculture department officials, who did not want to be named, claim that the insurance company says there is a discrepancy between satellite-based yield estimates, which show more crop damage, and CCE data, which show less damage.
As farmers wait for the next monsoon, they are hopeful that there will be no adverse weather conditions this time.
snehal.mutha@thehindu.co.in
Edited by Sunalini Mathew
