'Scrap crop loan repayment'

Gajanan Tidke's name does not figure in the list of farmers that committed suicide and whose families received monetary compensation from the Maharashtra government.

Since January 2004, 40 suicides (going by official figures) by farmers have kept the collector's office at Yevatmal district in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region busy. Of these, 18 suicides were referred to the state government for compensation. The next of kin of 11 of these farmers got Rs 1 lakh from the chief minister's relief fund, relatives of three obtained Rs 50,000 and in one instance Rs 10,000 was paid to the next of kin of the deceased farmer.

Tidke, a 23-year-old farmer from Harsool village in Digress taluka in Yevatmal was an only son and about to marry soon. On July 13, however, he ended his life after his third attempt at sowing failed. The rain gods were less than bountiful for the third year in a row.

Says Prakash Madhavrao Butle Patil, district president of Prahar, a non-governmental organisation that has been conducting an independent study of farmer suicides: "Since 2001, 315 farmers from Yevatmal district alone have committed suicide. In most cases a failed crop and mounting debts were the reason."

The case of Pandurang Gule, a 48-year-old farmer who owned 10 acres of land, is similar. On July 19 this year he set alight the dried cotton crop on his land and jumped into the burning fields.

While Prahar has been working at ensuring that the next of kin of farmers who took their own lives are compensated, Shekari Sanghatna leader Vijay Jawandiya insists the compensation is encouraging farmers to take the extreme step. "Why is the incidence of suicides not being analysed? Since 1991, the number of suicides by farmers in the cotton belt of Maharashtra has increased. It is a classic case of farmers getting caught up in a debt trap from which they find it impossible to extricate themselves in the wake of failing crops," Jawandiya says. Cotton could be freely imported during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government's tenure at the Centre, he adds.

"Instead of offering compensation to the kin of farmers committing suicide, the state government should instead either scrap or reschedule their crop loan repayments for the current fiscal year. Allow them to repay their current year's loan in five instalments over the next five years. If the state government could announce a package of Rs 1,000 per hectare for sugarcane cultivators whose crop was destroyed by the 'Lokri Mawa' disease, can't a similar package be announced for cotton farmers," he asks.

Jawandiya says that while farmers who lost two sowings continue to pay insurance premium, in addition to the 12 to 14 per cent interest on the crop loans they have taken, an assessment of failed crops is done in a block by block manner, which denies them monetary relief.

"While computing the average crop situation, blocks of 100 villages are taken together and an average production figure worked out. Therefore, the 15- odd villages in Devli taluka of Wardha where two sowings have already failed have not got the insurance money. Worse, they have to pay the premium, adding to their indebtedness," Jawandiya says. A simple method to get the farmers back on their feet, according to him, is to allow them to sell a portion of their land to clear their debts.

"A farmer who has taken a Rs 20,000 loan from a bank for which he has mortgaged his 15 to 20 acres is denied further loans if he has defaulted on his existing loan repayments. The loan amount is small compared to the value of his landed holdings. Yet he has no access to a fresh loan to resow and has to approach local moneylenders and avail of loans at a higher interest rate," he adds.