Revision as of 14:36, 17 April 2015

Farmers' suicides

No let-up in suicides by farmers

Deeptiman.Tiwary @timesgroup.com New Delhi:

[The Times of India] Aug 03 2014

A look at government data since 1995 to 2012 shows that no party has succeeded in putting a stop to this scourge.

In fact, in its previous stint in power the NDA fared worse than the Congres. It saw a 31% increase in farmer suicides compared to the previous regime. Under UPA's next five years the figure marginally increased by 2%.

Among states, Maharashtra has the worst record for farmer suicides. During 1995-1999, BJP-Shiv Sena regime saw 10,000 farmers end their lives. From 1,083 farm er suicides in 1995, the re gime witnessed 2,409 farmer taking their lives in 1998.

The following Congres regime was worse. Between 1999 and 2003, over 16,000 farmers committed suicide in the state. In the next nine years of Congrss-NCP rule in Maharashtra, 33,702 farmers ended their life.

In Madhya Pradesh, BJP's second showcase state after Gujarat, the situation has been no better. During the Congres regime of 19982003 under Digvijaya Singh, over 13,000 farmers committed suicide. Since then over 22,000 farmers have ended their lives in MP under the BJP regime.

In Andhra Pradesh, both TDP and Congres, which have ruled the state during the period, sail in the same boat. During TDP's regime of 1995-2003, over 16,000 farmers committed suicide. In the following 10-year regime of the Congres's YS Rajasekhara Reddy and others this figure increased to over 21,000.

In Karnataka, between 1995 and 1999 under Janata Dal government, over 10,000 farmers committed suicide. This increased to 12,000 in the next regime under Congres. Between 2004 and 2012, under two years of Congres and rest of BJP rule, over 18,000 farmers ended their lives.

Farmer suicides on rise: IB report

Some facts: Farmer suicides in India

The Times of India Dec 23 2014

Bharti Jain There has been an upward trend in cases of farmer suicides in Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka and Punjab recently, besides reporting of instances in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, said an Intelligence Bureau note submitted to the Modi government. The December 19 report, marked to national security adviser Ajit Kumar Doval, principal secretary to the PM, Nripendra Mishra, and agriculture ministry among others, has put the blame on the erratic monsoon (at the onset stage) this year, outstanding loans, rising debt, low crop yield, poor procurement rate of crops and successive crop failure. It also linked the agriculturists' woes to a depleted water table, unsuitable macroeconomic policies with respect to taxes, non-farm loans and faulty prices of import and export.

According to the IB, “While natural factors like uneven rains, hailstorm, drought and floods adversely affect crop yield, manmade factors like pricing policies and inadequate marketing facilities result in post-yield losses“.

The report `Spate of Cases of Suicide by Farmers' emphasized how government relief packages are of limited use as they do not address the plight of those who borrow from private money-lenders.“The money lenders continue to offer loans at interest rates of 24-50%, while income-generating potential of the land has remained low and subject to weather conditions,“ the IB pointed out.

It observed that though loan waivers and relief packages may mitigate farmers' distress in the short run, “the problem requires a comprehensive solution that addresses crop yield, availability of farm inputs and loan, assured irrigation, cold storage and marketing facilities and fair pricing policies“.

2014-15: suicides increase in Maharashtra

The Times of India

Mar 22 2015

Priyanka Kakodkar

40% increase in farmer suicides in Maharashtra

He pinned all hopes on his tiny field of jowar.Sandeep Shinde nurtured it after a drought had singed his cotton crop last year. But days before the new crop was due for harvest last week, rain pelted down hard. The jowar stalks collapsed into the mud and the grain turned black. A few hours later, the 27-year-old farmer hung himself with a nylon rope from a tree in his field in Patoda taluka. Shinde is not the only one to take his own life. Farmer suicides in Maharashtra have shot up by over 40% in the last seven months compared to the same span last year. A total of 975 suicides by farmers between January to July 2014 was reported. The figure rose to 1,373 between August 2014 and February 2015. Shinde had not managed a decent crop in the last three years in this arid belt, running up debts of 1.2 lakh. The drought and bouts of rain wrecked his chances of breaking even. “He was worried about his loans and talked of migrating,“ says family friend Rajabhau Deshmukh. Shinde's widow Shobha is anxious about her four-year-old son and oneyear-old daughter. “I cannot even afford milk for the children,“ she says.

In a state where farmer suicides have become endemic, the widespread drought followed by freak rains and hailstorms have pushed many more over the edge. In many cases, the calamities claimed two successive crops.

The region of Marathwada, which was among those worst hit by the drought, has seen the sharpest increase in suicides by farmers during the same period. The suicides here have risen by 85%. Every single village in the region was declared drought-affected.

Even large land-holders are committing suicide in Georai, which is part of Aurangabad's Beed district and is located close to the Jayakwadi dam. Gangadhar Shendge, who committed suicide two weeks ago, had an 18-acre farm. “Our entire kharif crop was ruined. We did not sow the rabi crop at all,“ says his son Mahadev Shendge. Across the state, sowing for the rabi winter crop was down by 40%.

Maharashtra: cities get more farm loans

The Times of India

Apr 08 2015

`Maha cities corner more farm loans than villages'

Priyanka Kakodkar

At the RBI's 80th anniversary recently , Prime Minister Narendra Modi had invoked farmers' suicides to urge banks to lend more to cultivators. “When a farmer dies, does it shake the conscience of the banking sector? He faces death because he has taken loans from a moneylender,“ Mr Modi said. Credit to the farm sector has in fact risen across the country over the last decade.Yet, in Maharashtra, which reports the highest farmer's suicides in the country , the bulk of farm loans ironically do not go to farmers, says a new study based on RBI data.

Although the majority of farmers live in rural areas, a larger portion of agricultural loans are supplied by urban and metropolitan branches of scheduled commercial banks, the study says.

Urban and metropolitan branches of these banks ac branches of these banks accounted for nearly 44% of agricultural credit, the study said. By contrast, rural branches supplied almost 30%. The study by economists R Ramakumar and Pallavi Chavan is based on data from the RBI's report “Basic Statistical Returns of Sched uled Commercial Banks in India“ for 2013.

So loans to farmers are not driving the rise in agricultural credit. Instead the major beneficiaries in the revival of farm credit in this decade are agri-businesses and corporates involved in agriculture, the authors say .

This is because the definition of agricultural credit has expanded to include these businesses. “The definition includes loans to corporate and agri-business institutions as well as storage equipment in cities. It includes loans for commercial and export-oriented agriculture,“ says Ramakumar, an economist with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

The growth in agricultural credit has also been fuelled by a rise in indirect loans, the study says.Direct loans are given to farmers while indirect loans are given to institutions indirectly involved in agricultural production. The share of credit to small and marginal farmers has dropped dramatically across the country , the study shows. Instead, loans of Rs 1 crore and above are driving the revival of agricultural credit, the study says.