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IT was time for a reality check. In the safe confines of the Legislative Assembly, Maharashtra's politicians witnessed a dose of the real world on December 6. Gulabrao Gavande, a Shiv Sena legislator, wanted them to wake up to the daily tragedy of the Vidarbha countryside. So, he rushed to the floor of the Assembly and poured a bottle of kerosene on himself. Then, he opened a bottle of pesticide and was about to swallow it when other legislators rushed to stop him. Gavande was barred from attending the rest of the session.
His recklessness could have set the House on fire - literally. But his shocking suicide attempt ignited a fiery debate about the government's neglect of the agricultural crisis in the underdeveloped Vidarbha region of eastern Maharashtra. Farmers' suicides are on the rise. Every day, deaths are reported in local newspapers. But so far, the State has not tackled this alarming tragedy. The Opposition too has no creative solutions to offer. Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray rushed to Vidarbha and assured farmers his party's muscle power to bash up moneylenders and bank officials who harass them.
A few days after Gavande's suicide attempt, a defensive Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh announced a Rs.1,075-crore `package' for Vidarbha's farmers. The package lists a series of short-term measures, but does not address the main issue of crop prices. Largely, the package has waived interest on loans up to Rs.25,000, but requires farmers to pay the principal in three years at 9 per cent interest. Other measures include schemes to improve land quality, provide consumer loans and set up self-help groups, a watershed mission and cotton processing units. Besides, it has set aside money for mass marriages and counselling centres. The government also told farmers not to pay unauthorised moneylenders. But this seems unrealistic since moneylenders are the only source of credit in villages today. "This package shows that the government is not serious about addressing the real problems of farmers. It is running away from the responsibility of giving cotton farmers fair prices for their crop. It has had this duty for the last 30 years under the monopoly cotton procurement scheme," says Vijay Jawandhia, farmers activist from the Shetkari Sanghatana. The package does not mention anything about the prices of cotton or other produce. Earlier, the government had slashed the price at which it procured cotton by Rs.500. "The plight of cotton farmers is even more grim because of this price drop. Even traders will now reduce prices to farmers. There is no political will to deal with the problem."
Meanwhile, from his hospital bed, a visibly shaken Gavande told Frontline, "I don't know what I was thinking when I did this. I'm very troubled seeing so many people kill themselves. Morchas and protests have had no effect on the government. I wanted to awaken the administration to this crisis."
Gavande, MLA from Akola, has been brawling with powerful moneylenders who have been snatching land from farmers. "Moneylenders are taking advantage of people's desperation. They won't lend until the farmer signs a document handing over land ownership to them. Then, when the farmer can't repay, they take over the land. So farmers lose land worth Rs.2 lakh for a loan of Rs.20,000. Moneylenders have captured around 5,000 acres of land in this way," he explains.
Gavande uses the methods he knows best. "Only I have the strength to fight these thugs because I am a wrestler and have an akhada with me," he smiles. "I told the villagers not to spare anyone who harasses them. Recently, when a moneylender told one farmer to sell his daughter in order to pay back the loan, the villagers of Dadham got together and flogged him to death." In the past few months, the government has cracked down on moneylenders, arresting several of them. But that has also led to more distress since they are the only source of funds available to farmers. Since most of them have defaulted on bank loans, that option is not open to them anymore.
Mounting debts are just a symptom of the crisis in agriculture. The crux of the problem is profitability, not only for the cotton crop, but also for others like paddy, soya, wheat, jowar, chilli or orange. "The prices of all products have risen dramatically over the years. Our input costs have also shot up. But for the last 10 years, the price we get for our crop has remained the same," says Jitendra Tatte, a large cotton and orange farmer from Lehegaon in Amravati. Input costs for his 60-acre farm have drowned him in debt. The more he cultivates the more his losses. "Everyone is in the same distress. Some have committed suicide. The rest of us live in agony."
"How do you expect us to survive?" asks Tatte. "Why doesn't inflation apply to our produce? Why do farmers have to starve so that the rest of the country gets cheap food?" In 30 years, the price of diesel has multiplied 47 times, but the price of wheat is only seven times what it was then, explains Jawandhia. Over the last decade, international prices of cotton have halved while the cost of cotton in the domestic market has doubled. But the rise in retail prices has not helped farmers a bit. Their procurement price has remained stagnant.
This season, the Maharashtra government has accentuated their dilemma further by reducing the price at which it will procure cotton from approximately Rs.2,200 to Rs.1,700 a quintal. The cost of cotton cultivation is Rs.2,200 a quintal, not including the farmer's own labour and other expenses like bank interest. If the price falls, farmers will suffer major losses of Rs.500 per quintal, no matter how much they produce. This will lead to more distress and more suicides.
At a public meeting in Nagpur recently, Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil justified this price fall by arguing, "Last year, the State suffered a loss of Rs.1,800 crores due to the procurement scheme. Yet, suicides were the highest. This means the money is not going to the farmers, but to agents. We will find other ways to make sure the funds reach those who need it."
Reducing the price is not going to solve the glitches in the procurement system. "If the government is really interested in making the scheme work for farmers, they should pay the amount up front to farmers, not in instalments, that too over a period of one year. And, they should stop deducting loan collections from the payments. Leave it to the banks to recover their loans," says Jawandhia.
The procurement scheme is in the red owing to the fall in international prices of cotton and heavy imports since 1997. Cultivators in Western countries receive huge subsidies from their governments. They can afford to sell their produce at much lower prices. The Indian government could protect its producers from imports and crashing international prices by hiking the import duty on cotton. At present, it is only 10 per cent, while import duty on other products like sugar (60 per cent), rice (80 per cent) and second hand cars (180 per cent) are much higher. "The government is willing to protect sugar farmers and foreign car manufacturers, but not cotton growers," says Jawandhia.
Pointing to the preferential treatment given to the sugar industry in Maharashtra, Jawandhia says: "The amount of sugar released in the market every month is regulated by the Central government to ensure that the price does not fall. If the State can intervene to protect sugar producers, then why can't it also safeguard cotton growers?"
MAHARASHTRA'S 30 lakh cotton farmers are being told to innovate and diversify. Innovations only increase the burden of debt. And the interest rate is high. Banks charge 12 per cent. While the rate of interest for consumer loans is only 7 per cent and for credit to start a sugar factory a mere 4 per cent, moneylenders, now the main source of credit, charge between 60 per cent and 120 per cent. And the farmer risks losing his land.
Farm improvements cost Sudhir Tatte his life. He spent more than Rs.2 lakhs sinking tubewells and installing sprinklers and drip irrigation on his orange orchards and cotton fields in Lehegaon. But nothing seemed to work. The water table had fallen. Finally, he swallowed poison and killed himself in 1998. Seven years later, his family is still burdened by debt. They have given up on agriculture and leased out the fields to others.
Bt cotton is also being promoted as the solution. It costs around 12 times more than other seeds, and has failed to deliver results. "The dealer assured me that I would get 19 quintals an acre from Bt cotton. Not only were the seeds expensive, but I also had to spray pesticide. Yet, I got the usual two or three quintals, but I spent so much more. I am totally ruined," said Surendra Zane, a farmer in Lehegaon.
"What other crops can we grow?" asks Jitendra Tatte. "The prices of all crops have remained stagnant. We have even experimented with growing herbs, but there is no market to sell them. Moreover, our choice is restricted to only a few crops since we don't have irrigation." Only 10 per cent of Vidarbha's farmland is irrigated. It is difficult to even promote dairy farming as an alternative since it is too dry to grow fodder for livestock.
The Chief Minister's package is full of half-hearted stop-gap measures. The real issue of pricing and profitability has to be tackled to stop peasants from sliding down further. "Mine will be the last generation of farmers. I don't want my son to be a farmer and suffer the way I have," says Jitendra Tatte.
"In our next life, we would rather be cows in Europe than farmers in India," jokes Vijay Jawandhia. "There they [the farmers] get two dollars subsidy a day to feed their cattle. Here, we slog in the fields and don't even get one dollar."
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