Suicides in a parched state

Muniswamy was a fairly prosperous sugarcane farmer in the prime Cauvery Delta region of Nanjungud. That's not quite the case now.

"I am just about surviving," he says. "I feel sorry for farmers who have just a couple of acres of land and that's their only means of survival. Lending in a lot of villages is an ugly vicious circle and however much we try not to get into that, we are forced to do so by the drought," he adds.

According to Muniswamy, a lot of farmers in Karnataka have become daily labourers in small towns and fail to pay interest to money lenders. Worse, the number of farmers who have committed suicide is gradually inching up.

For Karnataka has had a hat trick of sorrows. Even as the rest of India has hailed a good monsoon, the state has had scanty rainfall for the third time in a row.

Though talks are on with the Andhra Pradesh government on the crucial Krishna river water sharing formula, it is not likely to bring in a wave of appreciation for Karnataka chief minister S M Krishna.

The sorry state Karnataka's farmers are in also comes at a time when, like most of India, the state's Congress government will go to the polls around the same time next year.

This is a state where agriculture is worshipped. The river Cauvery does originate here but the parched land is so vast this season that it is hardly adequate to meet the agrarian needs to the full.

Karnataka has about 29,000 villages and about 190 lakhs hectares of land. Of this, about 106 lakh hectares of land is cultivated throughout the year.

During pre-monsoon 2003 (January to May) the state as a whole recorded severe deficit rainfall "" minus 68 per cent of the normal. Of the 175 talukas, rainfall was normal in only 13 talukas.

During June 1 to 10, the rain gods were miserly, compared with the corresponding period of 2002.

Among the 172 taluks for which rainfall reports have been received, rainfall was excess in 28 talukas, normal in 20 talukas, moderately deficit in 11 talukas, severely deficit in 63 talukas and there was no rain in the remaining 50 talukas.

Last year, for the same period rainfall was excess in 77 talukas, normal in 32 talukas and deficit to nil in 66 talukas.

But crucially, the onset of the south-west monsoon was delayed by a week "" and rainfall during the south-west monsoon (June to September) contributes 71 per cent of the state's normal annual rainfall.

Kharif agricultural production in the state depends on the timeliness, quantum and distribution of this rainfall.

The total crop area sown was 1.69 lakh hectares, 1.31 lakh hectares less than during last year.

The result? A huge mess on the ground with farmers increasingly taking their own lives in desperation. Over the last three months, as many as 150 suicides by farmers were reported. The state government, of course, denies that the deaths are related to the failed monsoon.

That could be Krishna's way of soothing the farmers. But of the four years that his government ruled the state, three were drought affected.

S N Nanjundappa, a senior economist who was earlier involved in the State Planning Commission, believes that if the rains failed, Krishna could have done very little.

"The only thing is that he should have handled the talks with Andhra Pradesh in a much better way to expedite the Krishna river water sharing issue. I think even though the talks are on at a much hastened pace now, it is a bit too late," he adds.

According to him, going by the changing rainfall pattern in the state, the administration should have forseen the crisis and taken pre-emptive measures.

"We need a more down-to-earth approach. The administration should be more proactive instead of just reacting," he says.

He points out that crops are planned much ahead of the onset of the monsoon. And the only way that the administration can salvage the situation is by getting involved at the panchayat level before that.

"Sanctioning a lakh of rupees here and there after the crops fail will not benefit much at all," he says. Over to the Krishna administration.