Mirage in Vidarbha

The Prime Ministers package for farmers in the region has done little to mitigate their distress, and suicides continue to be a way out.

DIONNE BUNSHA in Vidarbha

FARMERS in India may believe in a hundred gods, but they have no faith in politicians. So when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Vidarbha last year and announced a package to stem the suicides by farmers in this cotton-growing region of Maharashtra, no one was convinced. Not even the officials who should be responsible for implementing the package.

Why is there a need for a package only for this area? Isnt there an agrarian crisis all over the country? The suicides are a symptom of a much deeper agrarian distress, said Sudhir Goel, Divisional Commissioner, Amravati, who is in charge of executing the Prime Ministers package. The main problems are the monsoon and the market. Rain-fed agriculture is very risky. After spending so much on cash crops, the farmers find that the returns are lower than the cost. There has to be crop insurance, higher support prices, institutional changes and a shift away from high-cost intensive farming. Whats the point in putting money into a non-sustainable system of agriculture? None of these issues has even been mentioned by the reformer Prime Minister.

The officialdom claims that the number of suicides fell after the package was introduced. They have to prove that Manmohans magic wand has done the trick.

But the real sleight-of-hand is in the bureaucratic jugglery. The number of reported suicides has increased from 1,071 in 2001 to 1,520 in 2006 (Table 1). But the State government says that the number of eligible cases for compensation, the authentic farm suicides, has fallen. To prove their competence, they are denying poor widows compensation.

Statistics (Table 2) show that the percentage of suicide cases ineligible for compensation has increased to 85 per cent in 2007 from 60 per cent in 2006. After the package, the ineligible suicides are far more. According to the authorities, these ineligible cases are those of people who killed themselves for reasons other than the farm crisis alcoholism, daughters wedding expenses, family tensions or excessive health expenses.

But Goel admits: Of course, all these problems are linked to the agrarian distress. But the rules say that a suicide victims family is eligible for compensation only if the deceased was indebted, harassed by the bank or moneylender, or suffered crop loss . So, many dont get it. Even though bureaucrats have witnessed the suicide phenomenon for years, their thick-skinned response to this disturbing trend has not changed much.

Every day, at least three suicides are reported in the Vidarbha region. But officials claim that people are killing themselves in order to enable their families to avail themselves of the Rs.1 lakh compensation. Or that these farmers are alcoholics any way. But there is no understanding of the distress that drives them to alcoholism or to have fights with their family.

Like most government projects, the Rs.3,750-crore package offered by the Prime Minister is one more instance of money pumped into schemes gone awry.

The highlight of the package was a directive to banks to issue crop loans even to farmers who defaulted on their repayments. As a result, the number of farmers taking loans went up from 4.48 lakhs to 10 lakhs, according to government statistics. (There are 17.64 lakhs farmers in the six districts covered by the package). However, this kharif (monsoon) season, the number has come back down to 4 lakhs. Most farmers could not repay the loans taken and were denied fresh loans. Many are burdened with a double debt to pay off.

Those who can bribe officials get loans and aid. But those who really need help do not get it, said Devdas Tirmare, a farmer from Shingnapur village in Amravati district. I didnt get any loan. They made us run around with a lot of paperwork. After a while, I gave up and took Rs.20,000 from the moneylender at an interest rate of 60 per cent per annum.

Even the lucky few who got bank loans had to borrow from moneylenders since the Rs.4,000 per acre crop loan (for cotton) is not enough to meet all farming costs.

Vidarbha has only 10 per cent of its agricultural land under irrigation. With rain-fed agriculture, the uncertainty is immense and the crop yield is less. Hence farmers are always on tenterhooks. Moreover, they are in a race to buy expensive, better-yielding seeds. As a result, one finds only genetically modified Bt cotton seeds in the shops.

People are unnecessarily opting for high-cost and high-risk products. The input dealers (who are also moneylenders) force them to buy expensive products and their debt increases, says Kishor Tiwari, leader of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan. The demand for the latest Bt cotton 2 seeds was such that they were selling in the black market. But few would have read the warning on the seed box because it is in English: Bt cotton should not be cultivated in light and shallow soil without assured irrigation. Very few cotton farmers here own irrigated land.

The government claims that the projects under the package have irrigated 17,171 hectares less than 0.5 per cent of the total agricultural land in the region. But none of the farmers or activists that this correspondent met had even heard of these irrigation projects. Over 5,000 check-dams are expected to be constructed soon. That will help ease the burden of a few farmers whose fields are close to these bunds. But what about the hundreds of others?

Two check-dams and two mud bunds have been constructed in our village, but they are in the jungle, where there arent many farms. Only one farmer may have benefited, and that too only for two months in the monsoon, said Maruti Ade, sarpanch of Karegaon in Yavatmal. Most people arent aware that these government schemes exist. You have to apply for them. But no government official has ever come here, so how will people know? he asks.

As part of the package, the State government says that it has given 4,121 families a pair of milch cows each to provide them an additional income. But there is a catch the family has to pay half the price of the cows and buy them only from the government-designated agent and that too, only the breed that the government decides on.

I spent Rs.8,500 to obtain a buffalo through the scheme, but it doesnt give any milk. Instead, Im spending Rs.250 every month to feed it. I plan to sell it off soon, but no one is willing to buy it either, said Nanda Bhandare from Bhadumadi village in Yavatmal, whose husband killed himself last year.

It is simple. All that the Prime Minister needs to do is make sure that we get a good price for our produce and write off our existing loans. It will also eliminate all the corruption associated with this government scheme, says Suryapal Chavan, an All India Kisan Sabha activist from Shingnapur, a village that had set up a kidney sale centre as a mark of protest (Frontline, March 24, 2006).

Now, the village has only one farmer cultivating cotton. The rest have shifted to soyabean cultivation because the expenses are less. If soyabean production increases, traders will lower prices for the crop, and farmers will suffer losses. Either way we lose. Thats why the government must assure a fair and stable price, said Chavan.

The State government admits that the assured support price for most crops does not even cover the cost of inputs (Table 3). For cotton, the cost per quintal is Rs.2,585, while the support price is Rs.1,760.

By denying them a fair price, we are making farmers bonded labourers in their own fields. They cant even recover the cost of their family labour. Is it any wonder that they are in debt? They are gambling with borrowed money without any coping mechanism, said Goel.

When property or share prices increase, the state rejoices that the economy is booming. But if food prices go up, why do they shout inflation? asks Vijay Jawandhia, Shetkari Sanghatana leader. While the prices of all other goods have skyrocketed, the price of cotton is the same as it was 10 years ago.

I have just one question for the PM, says Jawandhia. You give subsidies to increase the export price of sugar. You give subsidies to reduce the import price of wheat Is it a sin to grow foodgrains in this country?