Farmers' Suicide in Western Odisha

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Farmers’ Suicide : An Issue of Great Social Concern for Western Odisha

Acknowledgment

We are very much grateful to our Coordinator Dr D K Beherafor his persuading words for developing skill to present yourideas in the form of reports, seminars, presentations, studyreports, research works and influence the individuals or groups infront of you.

He has been constantly focusing in these soft skills from theday one since we all would be going to a social worker and a goodsocial worker needs these qualities to great extent becauseultimately he/she has to raise social issues and concerns, presentproblems and solutions, interacts with individuals, peoples andinstitutions to bring transformation in society.

We would thank our Madan Sir for giving us an opportunity toparticipate the seminar along with senior students so that wecould learn many things from our seniors. We wish to pay specialthanks to him for one more reason as he has shown concern for usand recommended for arranging some refreshments for participantsin seminar.

We would like to express our gratitude to Komalini Mem andSwagatika Mem for giving us the liberty to choose topics of ourown choice and providing very informative tips for seminarpresentation.

We also wish to thanks Rashmi Mem for providing books fromour seminar library for preparation of report and special thanksto Brother Uma and Kartik for providing support whenever we askedfor.

We can not forget the contribution of Mr Amitav Patra, asocial worker from Bargarh district who is currently working onthe issue of farmer’s suicide in Western Odisha, we have collecteddate-wise list of farmer’s suicide and many other information.

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This seminar report would not be possible without support ofour Lab in-charge of computer laboratory for making available thecomputer for use of internet for collecting information andpreparing report and presentation.

We are indeed indebted to our HOD, Dr.Choudhury for providingsuch an educational environment with facility of computer lab andlibrary in the Dept of Anthropology which is really beneficial fora student and research scholar to gather information for his/herresearch work.

1. Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………….......... 3

2. Objective ……….……………………………………………………………………………………….. 4

3. Methodology ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 6

4. Findings …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 8

5. Global Scenario with reference to India ………………………………………………… 12

6. Conclusion …………………. ……………………………………………….…………………………. 14

7. References ………………………………………………………………….………………………….. 15

Table of

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As we all know India is the agricultural country, its 70% ofpeople depends on agriculture directly or indirectly for theirlivelihood. Because of its agrarian culture, people believefarming as a way of life that can shape the ideal social values.They emphasize on the superiority of a simpler rural life andopposed to the complexity of city life, with its banks andfactories.

Agriculture in India is often attributed as gambling withMonsoon because of its almost exclusive dependency on Monsoons.

Introducti

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsoons

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The failure of these monsoons leading to series of droughts, lackof better prices, exploitation by middleman and private moneylenders have been leading to series of suicides committed byfarmers across India. Thousands of farmers killed themselves inrecent years, according to experts who have analyzed governmentstatistics. Others traced the increase in farmer suicides to theearly 1990s. It was said, a comprehensive all-India study is stillawaited, and that most suicides occurred in states of AndhraPradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab and Odishaespecially in the western part of Odisha (Koshal region).

Over the past 10 years, more than 200,000 farmers in Indiahave committed suicide. This drama has had a huge impact on therural community, but the matter is not being taken up by theauthorities or the media. Journalist P. Sainath makes it hisbusiness to increase awareness of the fate of the victims (boththe farmers and their families) by publishing their stories. Heexposes the distressing lack of social justice in India and thehypocrisy of neoliberalism.

As many as 3,509 farmers committed suicide in the past elevenyears in Orissa as per PTI report. The highest number of 418farmers committed suicide in 1998. A total of 48,631 peoplecommitted suicide in the state from 1997 to 2008. On the allegedsuicidal deaths during the last two years, the highest number of11 farmers died in Sambalpur district, followed by eight inBargarh, seven each in Sundargarah and Keonjar, two each inBalangir, Nuapada and Puri and one each in Boudh, Kalahandi,Jagatsinghpur, Jharsuguda, Mayurbhanj and Koraput.

Stating that 73 per cent of the state's population earnstheir livelihood from cultivation, Government should take adequatemeasures for the socio-economic development of the community andprovide some subsidized farming facility to small farmers toreduce this epidemic also steps should be initiated for creatingawareness amongst farmers about the availability of facilities.

In this paper we have tried put forth the causes of farmers’suicide in Western Odisha from different perspectives andsuggested some measures that could be considered to overcome this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drought_in_India

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concern. More importantly we tried to bring focus this issue toall of us.

The prime objective of this study is to present a report on asocial issue in our departmental seminar in Dept of Anthropology,MSW programme. Since the issue of Farmers’ death in Western Odishahas been receiving attention of public, media, politician,researchers and policy makers in recent days and this issue hasbeen a concern for all, so we have selected this topic.

There has been many study reports and survey reports foundfor the state of Maharashtra (Vidarbha), Karnataka and AndhraPradesh for the issue of farmers’ death, but we could not find anyreport focusing the suicide cases of western part of Odisha. Wehave tried to prepare a report collecting information fromnewspapers and referring various research works.

This report may facilitate scholars for further investigationand research with systematic approach and the issue of framers’suicide can be highlighted to the students, academicians, NGOs,political parties, industries, social activists, medias andultimately to policy makers.

This report is based on completely on secondary datacollected from various sources. Though we have gatheredinformation from many sources, we have tried to limit the causesof the issues relevant to western region of Odisha only.

Objective

Methodology

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The information gathered for this study reports is sourcedfrom downloaded reports and news articles from various newsagencies on Internet. We have referred some seminar reports,survey reports of educationists, comments of research scholars,politicians & social activists and tried to compile all such datarelevance to farmers’ death with reference to Western Odisha.

We have collected data of causes of farmer’s death andsuggested measures from various survey reports like survey reportsof TISS carried out submission to Mumbai High Court on farmer’sdeath issue of Vidarbha and tried co-relate with causes relevantto Western Odisha.

We have referred the report of Dr. Narendra Jadavh, VC, PuneUniversity on action plan on farmers’ suicide and debt waiverrelief scheme, 2008 for agricultural development of Maharashtrasubmitted of Govt. of Maharashtra and collected some action planthose can be suggested measures for Odisha.

The Background

Western region of Odisha had been a prosperous land withabundant natural resources and self sufficient economy. Earlierflood was not known to this region. However, there were manyoccasions of droughts due to lack of proper irrigation, but inrecent years farmers are suffering from crop loss due to eitherheavy rainfall or shortage of rainfall.

Hirakud Dam and other dams were built by the governmentprimarily to decrease the damage by flood in Coastal Odisha andsecondarily to facilitate irrigation in Kosal region. As most ofthe dams were built in Western Odisha, many villages weredisplaced and many people lost their natural habitat. Thesedisplaced people, mainly farmers without adequate compensation,

Findings

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are living in bad conditions in places near and far away fromHirakud Dam such as in Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Sonepur,Deogarh, and Boudh districts. After losing their land and notbeing compensated said displaced people bought land and lived onsmall income generated from their small land holdings. Irrigationand rain saved these people from facing severe sustained drought,but erratic rainfall and shortage of water distribution leads tocrop loss and farmer’s bound to take the hard step of committingsuicide.

Since the Western part of Odisha has been a hub for theindustrialization for its rich natural resources and StateGovernment has encouraged many MNCs to invest in this area foreconomic development. Because of this industrialization, pollutionof air, water & soil is being on rising trend and forest land alsobeing reduced by proving land to them thereby the rainfall in thisarea is uneven hence cultivation and corps production has beensuffering.

Orissa has never seen farm suicides at this scale. Forty-three suicides are unprecedented. It is a distressing trend for astate where 80% farmers are small and marginal. “The pesticideswhich are available in the market are black marketed and the needyfarmers do not get it in time. Moreover the poor farmers when theysee that they cannot repay the loan that they have taken fromprivate money lenders, come under serious mental pressure andcommit suicide,” says farmers’ leader in Bolangir, Basudev Pati.

It is reported that more than 60 farmers in western Orissahave committed suicide in the last one year due to crop loss andfault in loan repayment. Orissa is going Vidharba way. With farmersuicides, continues to be unabated in western part of the country,eastern region has hit the headlines as several farmers havecommitted suicides after crops loss in Orissa's Western districtsof Sambalpur and Jharsuguda.

As per Government statistics, Odisha is growing at 9% GDPrate, and record production from agricultural sector in lastfiscal year, but it is embarrassing for all of us that still there

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has been a series of death cases of farmers’ and death due tohunger/starvation across the state particularly in western region.

THE PROBLEM

Farmers have been catapulted from one crisis to another inOdisha since 2009, floods, drought and then exceptionally heavyrainfall last year before the harvest. The deaths of 100 farmershave officially been registered as suicides, failed crops thatdrove them to their death since 2009 and most of them were westernregion of Odisha.

The Hirakud Dam was initially built to provide water forirrigation, but now the objective has taken a very convenientshift in order to provide water to the nearby industries, instead.As a result of shortage of water, the local farmers have alreadystarted committing suicide.

The farmers were forced to borrow loan from the micro-creditinstitutions and private moneylenders at exorbitant rate ofinterest as the cooperative credit system is unable to facilitateto small and marginal farmers. On failure of crop they are notable to repay the loan and farmers are being forced to commitsuicide.

Farmers’ Suicide and Agrarian Crisis in Odisha

Around 43 farmers have committed suicide in Odisha since 9months. This indicates a severe agrarian crisis has grippedOdisha.

Though farmers’ suicide has been reported throughout thestate including coastal districts, most of the suicides happenedin western and southern Orissa. These deaths are caused due tovarious factors, neo-liberal policies, indebtedness, loss ofaccess to land degradation, water sources, forest, distress sale,etc. Most of the farmers have committed suicide due toindebtedness when they could not pay back due to very low price of

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agricultural produce, high input costs, and total lack of accessto water resources and forests. Exploitative and insecure landtenures are a big factor in agrarian distress and farmers’suicide.

Most of the farmers who commit suicide are marginal farmersand share croppers who committed suicide due to failure of cropand inability of to pay back the debt to the money lender. InBolangir alone, 5 farmers have committed suicide in a single month– October 2009.

The above suicide is the symptom of deep growing agrariancrisis during the neo-liberal era where the natural resources ofthe state are handed over to multinational and national bigbusiness corporations.

The following Table shows the amount of land and village lost due to mega projects.

Projects Acquired Land in Hectares

Total Displaced Villages

1.Irrigation large dams 20,493 900

Medium dams 14,403 118Large dams proposed 12,160 92

2.Industries 48,358 177

3.Mines 10,947 N.A

4.Sanctuaries and wild life parks

81,155 771

Total 1,91,679 2,170Source – Kundan Kumar “Dispossessed and displaced: A brief paper on tribal issues in Orissa.” epgorissa.org April 2007.

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After economic liberalization, the successive governments ofOdisha have signed hundreds of MoUs with national andinternational corporate houses. 43 MoUs have been signed for steelplants alone, which will require 4,013 million tones of iron orefor a total installed capacity to produce 58.04 million tonnes ofsteel.

Decades of destructive development projects have totallydispossessed the rural poor in Odisha, overwhelmingly the Adivasisand Dalits. It has deprived them of land, water and forests.Without any sources of gainful employment in their own villages,they migrate to other states to work as contract and casuallabourers. The loss of agricultural land and drying up of watersources has endangered the food security of the rural poor. Themain reason of poverty and starvation deaths is due to widespreaddeforestation, displacement and loss of land because of variousdevelopment projects like big dams, mines, factories, townships,etc.

Rainfall figure by end July’11

Expected NormalRainfall (mm)

Rainfall recorded at endof July’11

Deficiency ofRainfall in %

Boudh 625.3 237.9Malkangiri 647.9 315.3Nuapada 535 233.2Angul 36.8Bargarh 47.5Bolangir 46.1Deogarh 42.2Jharsuguda 35Koraput 38.2Kalahandi 40.2Sonepur 34.2Odisha 534.5 407.4

Three districts in the state- Boudh, Malkangiri and Nuapadahave got less than 50 per cent rains till the end of July. Theeight districts where rainfall deficiency has been in the range of

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30-50 per cent. The cumulative rainfall recorded in the stateduring June 1-July 29 stood at 407.4 mm, 23.8 per cent short ofthe anticipated normal rainfall of 534.5 mm.

The deficiency in rainfall, however, was pronounced in Julywhere the actual recorded rainfall was only 194.3 mm as againstthe normal rainfall of 318 mm anticipated for the month.

POPULATION BELOW POVERTY (RURAL)

ORISSA INDIA

YEAR NO BELOW % TO TOTAL NO BELOW % TO TOTAL

POVERTY POPULATION POVERTY POPULATION

1993-94 140.9 49.72 2440.31 37.27

1999-00 143.69 48.01 1932.43 27.09

2004-05 151.75 46.80 2209.24 28.30

PROJECTION

2006-07 139.12 41.72 1705.26 21.07

2011-12 NA 4.63 NA 4.37

Source- National Institute Rural Development.

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Odisha has been registering a very low growth in agriculturebelow the national average.

The main factors are, overwhelming majority is small – marginal farmers and share croppers. A large chunk of the land, more than 60%, is rainfed and is in hilly and forest areas. Only few places in coastal districts, Bargarh and Sambalpur are irrigated.

Deforestation has degraded the soil and dried up the water sourcesin the rainfed areas. Lack of effective land reforms, neoliberal policy of withdrawing subsidies and exposing agriculture to national and international market forces, total lack of irrigation, almost 60% of areas in Odisha are rain fed but due to lack of political will, small, medium and lift irrigation service in India has totally collapsed.

The State Government, under the pressure of DFID and World Bank, has lowered the official expenditure on minor and lift irrigation.Due to the privatization of Odisha State Electricity Board the electricity price for agriculture has gone up. A very important factor in agrarian distress and land alienation in tribal areas isindebtedness, and rampant usurious money lending.

Due to the lack of secure land tenure most of the Adivasis, sharecroppers and marginal farmers borrow from the money lender in anexorbitant rate of interest. Under the globalization regime, wheninput cut goes up and the market price goes down, then farminghouseholds collapse. One of the biggest reasons of farmers’poverty in Odisha is distress sale, since the officialremuneration prices are low and the system is ineffective inOdisha. Most of the small and marginal farmers in Odisha areexposed to the market sharks. The share croppers do not have anysecurity in land tenure so they are unable to get credit frominstitutional sources hence they are forced to borrow money fromthe village money lender at an exorbitant rate. The share of sharecroppers in the agriculture sector in Odisha is quite high.

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Another reason of agrarian crisis in Odisha is lack of landreforms like distributing ceiling surplus land amongst landlessand giving security of tenure to the share cropper. Semi-feudalexploitation is a common feature in agrarian relation in Odisha.It is the most important factor in Adivasi land alienation.

In Odisha so far 1,42,616 people have got 1,59,384 acres ofceiling surplus land - out of them 51,934 are Adivasis who got66,303 acres and 48,794 Dalits got 51,109 acres. Likewise 4,62,537Adivasis and 32,706 Dalits got pattas for homestead land, 3,84,364acres are given to Adivasis and 1,75,577 acres to Dalits as lease.

According to Section 23 of Odisha Land Reforms Act 33,242 peoplewere allotted 36,496 acres of land out of which 22,970 areAdivasis and 20,827 are Dalits. According to official statistics10 lakh acres have been distributed in Odisha. This does notinclude homesteads. This is quite inadequate given the scale oflandlessness in Odisha and no one is sure whether the distributedland is in actual possession of the landless. Adivasis have beenloosing land to money lenders, liquor traders and landlords sincegenerations.

"The dam has almost lost its principal objective of irrigation promotion and agricultural development in the region. The system now hardly generates 30 percent of its installed hydro power capacity because of lack of adequate storage of water in the reservoir, obsolete technology and worn out machinery.

said the expert, who has authored several books related to sociology of development and on Orissa's economy.

"Although floods in the Mahanadi was under control for some years,because of the silting of the riverbed by sand downstream of thedam, floods in the coastal region of the state have startedrecurring in a more aggravating form since 1980," he said.

According to Meher, the dam project had displaced 101,000 people 50 years ago, a majority of them tribals. "Given the rate of population growth and limited success of the past resettlement andrehabilitation process, it is not unfair to say that around

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200,000 people of the original Hirakud oustees might still be impoverished by the project," he said.

The reservoir submerged around 50,000 hectares of good farm land in 300 villages. As against that, it irrigated 157,790 hectares during the Kharif and 97,910 hectares during the Rabi seasons, according to official records.

"But at present due to silting of the reservoir and canals the tail end areas do not get adequate irrigation water for the secondcrop. The area deprived of a second crop is almost one-third of the created irrigated potential in the command area," Meher said."So, the effective irrigation coverage for the second paddy crop is now available for hardly 60,000-70,000 hectares of agriculturalland and that is at the cost of loss of 50,000 hectares of agricultural land and disruption of livelihood of around 40,000 displaced families at present.

"Plus, availability of water for agriculture shall be reduced in future, as the area surrounding the reservoir is now witnessing fast industrial growth and mining of coal."Meher said factories were taking more and more water from the Hirakud reservoir. "Before 1997 the total allocation of water to the industries of the region from the reservoir was 3,191,200 gallons per year. This has increased by 27 times in the past nine years and this is obviously at the cost of water for irrigation.

"In this scenario, the farmers in the tail end are going to suffermore and more."Meher wanted "immediate improvement" in the water management in the project's command area. "If that is not done many small and marginal farmers who regularly borrow money for farming from various sources at high rates of interest may commit suicide."

Data Studied

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Cases picked up from various Newspapers for study

Case 1In a small village in Orissa's Sambalpur district, 61-year-oldShukla Chand killed himself by drinking pesticide. In this part ofWestern Orissa, this has become a frighteningly familiar story.Since November, 11 farmers from here have killed themselves.

For farmers like Shukla Chand, it seems like there's no one ontheir side. His suicide note says after his last crop of paddyfailed just before the harvest, the loans he owed seemedinsurmountable. He had cultivated eight acres of paddy with aninitial investment of Rs 80,000. He then took a bank loan of fivelakh to buy a tractor, and another three lakh from private moneylenders. When heavy rains destroyed his standing crop in Novemberlast year, he could no longer cope.

Case 2Another farmer suicide in BargarhSource : Orissa TV Bureau published on : 3/10/2011 11:31:54 PM

Within a span of less than two months, two members of a familyhave allegedly committed suicide here after being unable to repayloans due to crop loss.

The victim identified as Trilochan Bhuye hanged himself to deathon Thursday allegedly due to loan burden. On January 26,Trilochan’s father Bhairav had also committed suicide after hesuffered huge crop loss due to untimely rain.

Case 3Farmers committing suicide due to crop failure in western OrissaNageshwar Patnaik, ET Bureau Jan 13, 2010, 07.53pm IST

KABARAPALLI(ORISSA): Gangadhar Mirdha, a 50-year-old farmer ofKabarapalli village under Jujumura block, nearly 25 km who ownedthree acres of irrigated land, committed suicide on December 31 ashe suffered crop loss due to lack of water and pest attack. His

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naïve and shocked son Kshamanidh Mirdha made it clear that hisfather was under stress for quite some time as he saw no return ofhis investment on the paddy crop this year.

"Before taking the extreme step, my father - while dining withfamily members – used to ask us; – 'How can we survive this yearas there is no crop in the field? How can we repay the debts?"

Case 4Bhubaneswar: In the last one month more than 10 farmers in Orissahave allegedly committed suicide due to crop failure.

Jasoda Barik has two kids to feed but there is no earning memberin the family now. Her husband, a small time farmer, allegedlycommitted suicide on Thursday. Her husband had taken a loan of Rs10,000 from a local cooperative society to raise crops in hisfive-acre land but due to irregular rain his crops were attackedby pest. “He was worried that the pests have eaten away his crops.Moreover he had taken a huge loan,” says Jasoda.

Case 5Three Farmers commit Suicide in Western OdishaWritten by Odisha News Today Team, Wednesday, 27 July 2011 10:44

Bhubaneswar: Despite the claims of the state government that it isdoing enough to protect the farmers' interest, two more farmerscommitted suicide in the last two days. At least two farmers endedtheir life in Bargarh district, while another death reported fromSambalpur district.

Two people committed suicide due to drought and crop loss. UpendraRajhans (45) from Sohela area hanged himself from a tree near hishouse. He was under depression because of crop loss and loans.Another person K John Chakraborty (49) in Talapadar in Sambalpurcommitted suicide for the same reason. He was under depressionbecause of huge debt. John consumed pesticide to end his life.

Case 6Farmer suicide on the rise in OrissaNDTV Correspondent, Monday March 15, 2010, Sambalpur

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Surendra Dhurua had tried to commit suicide five months ago. Helost his entire paddy crop on four acres of land to poor monsoonand a pest attack. There was no way he could repay the Rs 13,000farm loan.

The pesticide would have killed Surendra, except his familyreached him to the hospital in time.

"First the rains ditched us. Then the pests finished everything.The loans drove me mad. I wondered what would happen if peopledemanded repayment? I thought it was better to die,'' saidSurendra Dhurua, a farmer from Kusumdiha Village, Sambalpur.

Surendra survived an unfortunate season of farm suicides. Forty-three farmers killed themselves towards the end of 2009. Nearlyhalf of them were from Western Orissa, where Sambalpur is.

Like the above cases there are many instances of farmers’ death inthis region which has been annexed with this report as Appendix-A.

CAUSES OF THE ISSUE

By analyzing the above death instances, we found that in mostof the cases the death occurred because of loss of crop due toheavy rain or shortage of rain and attack of pests with a stressof failure in repaying the loan borrowed from private moneylenders, co-operative societies and micro-finance institutions.

Causes noted by Amiya

Irregularities in rainfall Degradation of natural resources because high use of

fertilizers and pesticides Pushing by Govt for Hybrid seeds requiring high amount of

water mainly depends on ground water

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Aggressiveness of micro-financiers in providing short termcredits in high interest rates

Multiple credits : the repayment cycle Most important factors is increasing trend of population.

If farmer is having

What's common to the tragedies? All of them were small farmers Entirely dependent on monsoons for irrigation Sudden Inflation had limited their access to expensive

fertilizers and pesticides Most crucial, all of them had borrowed from money lenders

between Rs.10,000 to 25,000 at exorbitant rates, some as highas 25 per cent.

Causes

Reasons for suicides Number PercentageIrregularities in rainfallMarriage of daughter/sister 12 40.00Alcoholic 9 30.00Excessive social expenditure 8 26.67Loss in agricultural activities 16 53.33Borrowing repaying capacity 19 63.33Failure of bore wells 9 30.00Illicit relation 1 3.33Crop failure 13 43.33Agricultural debt 29 96.67Gambling 1 3.33Population

Main Causes

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Indebt ness Economic downfall Conflict in family Crop failure Dent in social status Daughter’s/sister’s marriage Addiction Health problems Failure of bore wells Agricultural debt Alcoholic Population Combination of more than one factor

Similarly, the use and abuse of chemical pesticides have played havoc with the environment and food chain. All this has been necessitated because we developed high-yielding crop varieties andhybrids that were responsive to chemical fertilisers and pesticides.

These crop varieties are also water guzzlers. A high-yielding variety (HYV) of rice, for example, consumes on an average 5000 litres of water to produce 1 kg of grain.

Now the government is aggressively pushing the use of hybrid seedsunder Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana. For the hybrid varieties, the water requirement is as high as 7000 to 7500 litres for a 1 kgof rice production. Hybrid seeds have hybrid vigour and therefore its seed have to be purchased afresh every year. This means more in put cost for the farmer. As a result we will see water mining literally sucking the groundwater levels dry. Any shortfall in rain will turn into a severe drought-like condition because the groundwater levels will fall drastically because of hybrid seeds promotion.

1. Distress sell of Paddy/

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2. Harassment by ricemill owner

There are many causes which forced a farmer to take a hard step tocommit suicide. We can categorized them into economical andsocial.

a. Destruction of natural resources.b. Due to intensive farming soil has been destroyed and ground

water has plummeted. Inputs like use of fertiliser andpesticides have destroyed the environment. Unwantedtechnologies have added to the woes. The input cost e.g. thecost of the seeds, fertilisers and pesticides have gone upwhereas the output cost has remained more or less same in thelast twenty years. If you adjust for inflation, output priceshave remained more or less frozen. So what do you expect thefarmer to do? They collapse under agrarian distress andcommit suicide.

c.

Suggestions

government should provide adequate support system to the distressed farmers

government should ensure that the farmers get remunerative price and receive their payment in time

Water distribution system and providing fertilizers and pesticides

Govt should plan to untimely rain and excess rain against the paddy purchased from them by various government

agencies and cooperative societies in time

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farmers were being forced to sell their remaining paddy stock to the rice millers at throw away prices

Government should intiate for its failure to protect the interest of the farmers.

"The Government's failure to provide irrigation facilities and loan at lowest interest rate, has forced the farmers community to adopt such path by ending their lives," said Padmaja Devadata, executive director, Bhubaneswar based Central for Rural Development and Research.

The Government should announce a special package, where crops havebeen damaged by either floods or drought, she added.

The RBI can provide to farmers can be given cooperative loans at 3% (some States give at 1%) why the same loan cannot be extended to the SHGs?

Q: In many cases of farmer's suicides there appears to be alinkage with small loans taken from Micro-Finance Institutions(MFIs). Are MFIs also responsible for agrarian distress?

There is no denying that micro-finance is a killer. It looks veryattractive under the garb of disbursing small credit at a cheaperrate to build the capacity of the poor and thereby alleviatepoverty. In reality, it does the opposite. I fail tounderstand how poverty can be banished when the poor are givensmall loans up to Rupees 10,000 on an exorbitant annual interestrate of 24%, which in reality turns out to be as high as 48% onweekly recovery. If you and I were to be also charged a usurpinginterest of 24 % we would surely slide into poverty. Micro-financeis therefore nothing short of a crime against humanity.

In the cities, we can buy a car on a loan at an interest averaging6-7%. House loans up to rupees 20 lakh are available at 8 %interest. Why should then the poorest of the poor be charged 24 %for a paltry amount? This is nothing but crime. And now look atthe hypocrisy of MFIs. They have gone to the Reserve Bank of

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India pleading for an extension of their repayment period forloans to 5-6 years. MFIs expect the poorest of the poor to repayat weekly intervals but when it comes to them, they are seeking arepayment period of 5-6 years. Isn't this double standard? I haveno hesitation in saying that the MFIs bosses need to be heldaccountable for the crime they continue to inflict on the poor.

Often MFIs respond by saying they have empowered the poorwith micro-finance. This is a cruel joke. if anyone has to repayback our loans at an interest rate of 24% with weekly instalments,we too would remain perpetually in poverty. The stories thatsome women have succeeded with MFIs loans is not only unconvincingbut are more often than not simply cooked up. As the private moneylenders (who charge still higher rate of interests) and they toowill tell you stories of several poor who turned the tables withtheir loans. So if the MFIs brand the private money lenders ascriminals, I see no reason why they too need to be seenas anything different. MFIs are nothing but organised moneylenders.

Q: People also are taking multiple credits?

A: The repayment cycle is so designed that poor have no choice butto take multiple credit thereby falling in multiple trap. When thepoor women cannot repay at weekly intervals they come under somuch of peer pressure that they are left with no other option butto commit suicide. Most of the poor in the rural areas are eithersmall farmers or landless labourers. It is therefore obvious thatfarmer suicide has a direct correlation with the functioning ofMFIs.

Let me illustrate. If a poor woman in West Bengal wants to buy agoat she gets a loan from an MFI at 24%. On the other hand, theprevious government had made available credit to Tatas for settingup its manufacturing facility for Nano car at an interest of1%. Isn’t this ironical? If the poor woman was also to be given asmall loan at 1% interest I bet she would be driving a Nano car at

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the end of the year.

Suggested measures

The problem cannot be solved unless the causes of farmers’suicides are properly pinpointed and comprehensive policies andprogrammes are formulated.

The causes of farmer suicide are both economic and social. The economic causes are:

growing expenditure, specially on bought inputs low productivity inadequate prices of agriculture produce difficulties in marketing and marketing hazards natural hazards caused by drought absence of proper crop planning unsatisfactory agriculture credit accumulated burden of debt

Amongst the social causes are: the drinking habit which atrophies the productivity of the

farmer extravagant expenditure on marriages bad health and illness and inability to meet the necessary

expenditure on medicine and health services

The study rightly comes to the conclusion that unless all thesecauses are simultaneously dealt with the situation cannot improve.It requires large public investment in irrigation and ruralinfrastructure, rejuvenation of the cooperative credit, marketingand processing system, strengthening of the agricultural extension

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services and sympathetic administration working closely with thefarming community.

Continuous efforts should be undertaken to crate awarenessamongst farmers about farm-development, co-operative schemes,saving groups, banking and insurance services and alsodevelopment in the filed of agriculture. This can be donethrough extension mechanisms of government and active supportsfrom colleges, NGOs, and Self Help experts.

Government should bear the cost of education of children fromfinancially distressed farming families.

Government should grant subsidized fertilizers and pesticidesand supply of quality seeds.

,

Actions initiated by GovernmentSource: Media News

Odisha: Govt orders probe into farmers suicide cases

Bhubaneswar, July 31: The Odisha government on Thursday ordered ahigh-level administrative inquiry into the recent cases offarmers' suicide in various parts of the State.

Agriculture secretary Rangalal Jamuda has been asked to inquireinto the incidence of farmers' suicide and submit report to thestate government as soon as possible, said agriculture ministerPradeep Maharathy.

If the suicide was found to be related to agriculture, the stategovernment would take necessary steps to provide all assistanceand relief to the family of the deceased. After getting thereport, the government will prepare comprehensive plans to checkfarmers' suicide and help the farm sector, the minister added.

Source: pragativadi.com

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Odisha farmers commission gets extension, will submit its final report in Oct

Odisha government had announced to set up a Farmers Commission inDecember, 2009 following a large number of poor and marginalfarmers committed suicides in the state due to the non-payment ofloans to the micro-finance companies and banks. The Commission wasappointed in January 2010 and started functioning from February.The Commission was expected to give its report in six month. But,it could submit an interim report in October last year and soughtan extension for six months. The farmers’ commission was scheduledto give its final report in March, 2011. But, it sought secondextension for another six months which the government granted tillSeptember 30, 2011.

The chairman of the commission is SM Patnaik, former chiefsecretary of the state and members are Dr Niranjan Panda, chairmanof the Western Orissa Development Council (WODC) and Dr SudhakarPanda, former chairman of third State Finance Commission (OFC)and Prof Ray as a member-convernor.

While the farmers suicides still unabated in Odisha, the StateFarmers Commission set up by the Odisha government will give itsfinal report in October, 2011. The state government has givensecond extension for another six month this year March to thecommission as it was to complete surveys and public hearings amongthe farmers community in some of the districts of Odisha.

While giving details on the Odisha’s Farmers Commission, Prof DebiPrasad Ray, Vice Chancellor, Orissa University of AgricultureTechnology (OUAT) and member-convenor, State Farmers Commissiontold www.bizodisha.com on Saturday that the state government hasgiven second extension for another six months which will becompleted by September end this year. “We will complete our reportand submit in October this year to the government”, he said.

The Commission in its interim report has suggested for thediversification of the crops to maize along with the vegetable andfruit crop for getting a better return on their hard work andinvestment. The Commission has recommended for the better seed

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production, commercial crops, and crop diversification for thefarmers to get better returns on their investment in theagriculture sector.

In the final report, the farmers commission is expected to giveits suggestions on how to make the loans available to the farmersat a cheaper interest rates, strengthen the irrigation facilityand make available the land Pattas to the share-croppers.

Source: www.bizodisha.com

Orissa Chief Minister reviews poor kharif cultivation, announces financial assistance to farmers

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today reviews the poorkharif cultivation and farmers suicide issue in a high-levelmeeting on Wednesday. After the meeting he said that the farmers,who embraced losses during the poor kharif cultivation, will beprovided financial assistance.

Chief Minister told the farmers incurring crop loss would get Rs4,000 per hectare of irrigated land; the amount is Rs 2,000 perhectare for non-irrigated land. The meeting revolved around thereport produced by agriculture production commissioner (APC), whowas appointed to probe the suicides of farmers in western Orissa.Report by Suchismita Sahoo; Bhubaneswar

GLOBAL SCENARIO WITH REFERENCE TO INDIA

The Roots of India's Farmer Suicide Epidemic

This suicide epidemic is not a product of "human nature," orIndia's culture. Mass farmer suicides were unknown in India beforethe 1990s. Nor are they random and unexplainable: they follow apattern. 86.5 percent of the farmers who commit suicide are indebt. Like Shankara, 40 percent had suffered a crop failure, themajority are small farmers (with less than five acres of land),and are growing cash crops for export. Cotton is one of India'smain cash crops, and one of the highest concentrations of suicides

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is among cotton farmers like Shankara. Roughly half of all farmersuicides occur in the Vidarbha region of central India, wherethere are 3.2 million cotton farmers.

India, the world's second most populous country, was one ofthe U.S.'s prime targets and has been ground zero for thisagricultural restructuring. India was a longtime ally of theSoviet Union, and most of its economy was controlled and directedby the Indian state, which represented the interests of Indiancapitalism and landed property, including semi-feudal landlordism.

Capitalist Globalization's Devastating Impact on India's Agriculture

India remains a predominantly agrarian society, with over 800million people (of the 1.2 billion total population)—nearly 70 percent of the population—living in rural areas. Over half of India's workforce of nearly 500 million works in agriculture.

The world's capitalist powers say that poor countries beingintegrated into the world imperialist system will lead to rapideconomic growth and development and rising standards of living forall. When President Obama addressed India's Parliament in November2010, he praised India for not "resisting the global economy,"instead becoming "one of its engines." He claimed this hadunleashed "an economic marvel that has lifted tens of millionsfrom poverty and created one of the world's largest middleclasses," and that advanced technology was now "empowering farmersand women" in India.

But what globalization has actually meant for the masses ofpeople in India is intensified exploitation, sweatshops, andgrowing disparity between the rich and poor. After 25 years ofmarket reform, the average calorie intake in India has declined!And globalization has meant the ruin of many farmers, driving theminto desperation. Let's look, for example, at how imperialistglobalization has affected farmers in India, who are a lot of thefarmers committing suicide.

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"The Largest Wave of Recorded Suicides in Human History"

Imperialism has everything to do with the epidemic of farmersuicides in India. And the United States, in particular, plays amajor role in shaping India's murderous agricultural system.During her visit to the Indian Agricultural Research Institute inJuly 2009, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said thatagriculture would be the "strongest and most important pillar" ofthe strategic partnership between the U.S. and India.

What's taken place in India over the past 16 yearsrepresents, in the words of one Indian researcher, "the largestwave of recorded suicides in human history”.

What makes this such a towering crime is that it's totallyunnecessary. There is no reason that agriculture and food andother needed goods can only be produced if a profit is turned andthe interests of a handful of imperialist powers are served. Thebasis exists, in human knowledge, technology, and resources, tosolve the needs—including for food and clothing—of humanity. Butwhat stands in the way of this is a world economic system ofcapitalism driven by profit.

Unless and until this system is abolished through revolution,and is replaced by a new socialist system, there will continue tobe massive hunger, starvation, dislocation—and yes, farmers willbe driven to drink pesticide out of horrific desperation. Undersocialism, making sure people have enough food will be the firstpriority in agricultural production and part of building a wholeworld of shared abundance for everybody.

India's epidemic of farmer suicides, and understanding thatit has been spawned by the workings of the capitalist-imperialistsystem, speaks powerfully—and achingly—to the urgent need for therevolutions that can bring that better world into being.

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For upliftment of the farmers there is need for a jointinitiative by State Government, Central Government and FinancialInstitutions. There is need of,

a) Timely and adequate support by way of credit to farmers withfocusing small and marginal farmers to have them modernequipment for improved agricultural productivity.

b) To issue Kisan Credit Cards to all the eligible farmers tohave them access to get ST, MT and LT loan from all the bankswith nominal interest rate.

c) To form the SHGs of Tenant farmers/ share croppers &agricultural workers and give them micro-credit throughbanks.

d) Encourage the farmers to adopt allied activities like dairy,fishery, poultry etc. with farming activities.

e) Facilitate in diversification/crop rotation in agriculturalproduction in changed scenario.

f) Adoption of upgraded technology inputs along with provisionof infrastructure inputs like power at subsidized cost,supply of inputs like seeds, fertilizers, tractors and creditprovision through all nationalized banks.

g) Adoption of Non-Farm activities with allied agriculturalactivities.

h) Arrangements of marketing /forward linkages /contract farmingto sell their produce at remunerative prices.

Conclusion

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i) Provision of crop insurance facilities with low premiumaffordable by the farmers for all crops and to all farmers,and insurance unit should be reduced to Village Panchayat forat least for major crops.

j) Bringing more land under irrigation by completing ongoingirrigation projects and plan about the new irrigationprojects, increasing network of canals, tanks; wells andmicro irrigation systems.

If these facilities are given to farmers they may achieveself-sufficiency in agricultural production. There is need formajor review of agricultural policy to meet the changing needs ofboth producers and consumers.

Any human being takes the drastic step of committing suicidewhen she/he feels hopeless about the situation and does not findany solution for problems faced. Suicide is a complex social andpsychological phenomenon. Psychologically, the suicide proneperson experiences mental distress because of certain crisissituation. Suicide is caused by many factors even when it occursin a cluster. If immediate help is made available to such aperson, his suicide could perhaps be avoided. Poverty,unemployment, loneliness, social and economic insecurity andconflicts in interpersonal relations are the important socialfactors contributing to suicide. This requires responsible andsensitive reporting by the media to Government and Peoples so thatcorrectly action could be taken.

References

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1. Causes of Farmer Suicides in Maharashtra: AN ENQUIRY, Final Report Submitted to the Mumbai High Court on MARCH 15, 2005 By TISS

2. In depth Study of Farmers’ Suicides, their Causes and Remedies:Farmers’ Suicides—Facts and Possible Policy Interventions by Meeta and Rajiv Lochan; published by: Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration

3. Odisha Poverty, Corporate Plunder and Resistance, By Prafulla Samanta & Asit Das

4. Agriculture:Farmer’s Suicide-2010, Compiled by K.Samu, uman Rights Documentation, Indian Social Institute, Lodi Road, New Delhi, India

5. report of Dr. Narendra Jadavh, VC, Pune University on action plan on farmers’ suicide and debt waiver relief scheme, 2008 for agricultural development of Maharashtra submitted of Govt. of Maharashtra

6. GreenEarth report on Impact of Relief Packages on farmers suicides in Vidarbha

7. Poverty in Orissa - A Life Long Disease, A Report by NABARD8. Farmer Suicide Contagion by Mudit Kapoor and Shamika Ravi,

Indian School of Business, Hyderabad9. Article dated 16th Dec.2008 by Mr D K Das, GM, Dairy project of

Orissa Milk Federation BHUBANESWAR-751014. E-Mail- [email protected]

10. Comments of Vandana Shiva, The Ecologist11. Devinder Sharma, Journalist, Food Policy Analyst and an

activist speaks to Pradeep Baisakh, Senior Editor, Orissa Diary on the issue of farmers' suicide, role of Micro Finance Institutions, water conflict between industry and agriculture sector, with special focus on Western Orissa.

12.Vulnerability to Agricultural Drought in Western Orissa: A CaseStudy of Representative Blocks by Swain, Mrutyunjay & Swain, Mamata

13.Amitabh Patra, A social Worker from Bargarh, M: +91-876332429914. Articles from Press Trust of India15. ET Bureau, 13 Jan 201016. Indian Asian News Service17. The Telegraphs18. www.orissadiary.com19. www.wikipedia.com

http://www.wikipedia.com/

mailto:[email protected]

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20. www.NDTV.com 21.http://www.breakingnewsonline.net/odisha/3592-farmer-suicide-a-

bitter-pill-for-everyone.html22. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110118/jsp/orissa/

story_13455881.jsp23. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-11-14/

bhubaneswar/ 28086556_1_bargarh-crop-loss-suicide-bid24.http://revcom.us/a/236/imperialist_suicide_epidemic-en.html

Appendix-A

List of Suicide Farmer

Sl. No. Name Address Date of Death1 Duaru Rohidas At – Kadobahal

Block – AtabiraDist – Bargarh

2. Baikuntha Bhoi At – Panimura13.11.2009

Block – SohelaDist – Bargarh

3. Sukanta Bagarti At – Jada 13.11.2009Block – BhataliDist – Bargarh

4. Jasketan Bhoi At – LastaraBlock – AtabiraDist – Bargarh

5. Maheswar Rohidas At – Kadobahal 16.11.2009Block – AtabiraDist – Bargarh

6. Gourahari Sahu At – Badmal06.12.2009

Block – BhataliDist – Bargarh

7. Mira Bhoi At – Jatala 18.04.2011Block – SohelaDist – Bargarh

http://www.NDTV.com/

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8. Bikala Garia At – HaldipaliDist – Bargarh

9. Pramod Sahu At – Barhagoda09.02.2008

Dist – Bargarh10. Balaram Sahu At – Golamal

Block – RengaliDist – Sambalpur

11. Bidyadhar Bag At – Khapsadera07.10.2009


12. Angad Barik At – GunduruchuanBlock – KulandaDist – Sambalpur

13 Fakir Patel At – Kurapada14.11.2009

Block – KulandaDist – Sambalpur

14 Pandaba Bhoi At – Padhanpali07.10.2009


15 Gangadhar Mirdha At – Kabarapali 31.12.2009Block – JujumuraDist – Sambalpur

16 Jayanarayana Batali At – Kuchinda11.11.2009

Dist – Dhenkanal17 Balaram Bhoi At – Padhanpali

10.08.2009GP – KatarbagaBlock – RengaliDist – Sambalpur

18 Amarendra Padhan Dist – Sambalpur19 Surendra Bhuria Dist – Sambalpur20 Shankar Narayana Dist – Sambalpur21 Rama Chandra Rana Dist – Sambalpur22 Baldev Barik At – Keshaipali

05.11.2009

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GP – DudukaBlock – Agalpur (Duduka)Dist – Balangir

23 Ghasiram Majhi At – Larka 03.11.2009Block – TurekelaDist – Balangir

24 Kshetra Mohan Meher Dist – Balangir25 Gangadhar Nag At – Katapali

14.11.2009Block – BelpadaDist – Balangir

26 Gangaram Block – Patnagarh(Cotton Farmer) Dist – Balangir

27 Gourahari Patra At – Sagarpali04.10.2009

GP – BharnkholDist – Jharsuguda

28 Kartika Mahakur At – BagamariGP – HilungaBlock – BirmaharajpurDist – Subarnapur

29 Maharsai Saranga At – KanikaBlock – HemagiriDist – Sudergarh

30 Fransis Kuhur At – BalimundaDist – Sundergarh

31 Puniram Bhitiria At – Kuturia 01.08.2010(Tentuliadhipa)Ps – LepreparaDist – Sudergarh

32 Rasid Godmajhi At – BhaunridihiBlock – LuhuripadaDist – Sundergarh

33 Gurucharan Naik At – Keroi 29.12.2009Block – SudergahDist – Sudergarh

34 Maharsi Naranga At – Kanika 26.10.2009Block – HemagiriDist – Sudergarh

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35 Mohan Singh At – Goldara16.11.2009

Block – NuanganDist – Sundergarh

36 Ugresen Mahanandia At – Khatkhatia05.11.2009

Block – KantamalDist – Boudh

37 Chantanya Majhi At – IchhapurGP – JadamundaDist – Nuapada

38 Sursingh Sabar At – Palsipani15.10.2009

GP – TarbodBlock – Komana

39 Kushadhaj Majhi At – Tarbod 25.10.2009Block – KomanaDist – Nuapada

40 Basanti Naik At – Mahumahana 20.11.2009Block – SoreDist – Kendujhar

41 Kanhu Hembram At – Tilpadia 20.11.2009GP – BalibareiBlock – HatdihiDist – Kendujhar

42 Narendra Sahu Keonjhar43 Santosh Nayak Keonjhar44 Devraj Jena At – Dudukateni

12.11.2009C/o – Sahadev Block – Sogarpasi

Dist – Dhenkanal45 Tapan Padhan Dhenkanal46 Sunil Satar At – Surutuma

21.10.2009Block – UmarkotDist – Nabarangapur

47 Banchhanidhi Padhan At – Sricharanpur31.10.2009

GP – RamachandrapurDist – Ganjam

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48 Kailash Panda At – Gangapur31.11.2009

GP – RamachandrapurDist – Ganjam

49 Gubuni Padhan At – Poichandia(Ababahika)Rajkishorpur(Paharabadi)Dist – Ganjam

50 Dhanu Champia At – BalisamalaBlock – SalepurGP – RamkrushapurDist – Cuttack

51 Manoranjan Bariha At – Sadeipur02.01.2010

Block – RaghunathpurDist – Jagatsinghpur

52 Dhanumunda Champia Dist – Jagatsinghpur53 Kurukshetra Saraf At – Bhabanipatana

12.12.2009(Ramsagarpada)Dist – Kalahandi

54 Dambarudhar Rana At – Sialpada 16.11.2009GP – RajpurDist – Kalahandi

55 Dillip Dash At – GudupaliBlock – BaleswarDist – Baleswar

56 Krupasindhu Pal Dist – Baleswar57 Driver singh Dist – Mayurbhanja58 Jibar Hembram Dist – Mayurbhanja59 Biswambara Jena Dist – Keonjhar60 Basudev Sahu Dist – Puri61 Bharat Padhan Dist – Puri62 Srinibas Rao Dist – Koraputa63 Gangadhar Gour Dist – Koraputa64 M.Narayan Dist – Gajapati65 Ashok Khatua At – Dhirpur

26.12.2010Block - Barpali

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Dist – Bargarh66 Sujit Khatua At – Dhirpur

27.12.2010Blockl – BarpaliDist – Bargarh

67 Siba Bhoi At – Gopeipali 29.12.2010Block – BarpaliDist – Bargarh

68 Maheswar Padhan At – Buromunda Oct. 2010Block – GaisilatDist – Bargarh

Farmers' Suicide in Western Odisha

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