[Dec 2007, Volume 4 Quarterly Issue] Pdf File size - The IIPM Think ...

REIMAGINING INDIA
cide in Wayanad District in Kerala
between 2001 and 2005.” (People’s Democracy,
Vol.30, No. 09, Feb 26, 2006).
Another study (Ridyasagar, and Sunianchandra,
2003) argued that “The central
issue of farmers’ suicides is the debt trap.
Small and marginal farmers, especially
those, who lease in land from others, are
not eligible for availing institutional
credit and crop insurance. Thus, they
land at the doorsteps of the usurious
moneylenders. This debt trap is tightening
because of the drastic shifts in the
cropping pattern that is market driven.”
Seeds, fertilizer and pesticide dealers
are at the centre of a growing controversy
in Andhra Pradesh. They are the
new moneylenders to a peasantry
strapped for credit. “The banks have
given no loans in the past seven years,”
says Malla Reddy, General Secretary of
the Andhra Pradesh Ryuthu Sangham
(APRS). “So many farmers are forced to
depend on sources like these for credit.
The same man advises them on what to
buy and then sets the rates for the purchase.”
With the seed dealers charging
hefty interest rates on their credit sales,
the problem gets more acute. The series
of reports filed by P. Sainath which appeared
in the Hindu and India Together
is indeed an eye opener. The Deccan
Herald dated August 11, 2005 reported
that Movement Against State Repression
(MASR) claims that about 40000
farmers committed suicides in Punjab
alone since 1988 whereas state government
admitted only 2116 cases. Rising
cost of cultivation, lack of market security,
exorbitant rate of interests charged
by moneylenders, dishonouring contracts
etc. were inter alia a few important
reasons. After 1996 loan amounts increased
four times but public institutions’
share was merely 20 percent. Despande
and Prabhu (2005) found that
most of the suicides were driven by debt.
Delivery mechanism of institutional
credit and its defined connivance with
local middle men and functionaries often
hatches conspiracy to confiscate the
land of the poor marginal and small
farmers and forcing them to
commit suicide. Suicide
committed by Manasa Ram
of Maraucha Ishwari Singh
Village (Suratganj Block in
Barabanki district of Uttar
Pradesh) is an example of
Near landless and marginal households took 56.7 % and
47.2 % of loan amount respectively from informal usury
networks. State wise variations suggest that non-institutional
share of loan fi nance was higher in many states
many such cases. However, efforts of social
activists foiled this conspiracy and
the confiscation got cancelled later. Tenant
farmers have seldom access to institutional
credit in absence of ownership
of land as collateral security and therefore
they are forced to be trapped in
usurious exploitative network. They often
sell their crops at pre-decided tied
price to the input dealers or at best at
farm harvest price to petty traders.
Kisan Sabha deliberated upon this serious
crisis and noted: “While every such
death is a tragic individual reality for
grieving families and loved ones, there
are important common features to the
farmers’ suicides. These farmers invested
heavily in inputs – biological inputs,
electricity, machinery, and other components
of fixed and variable costs. These
costs have risen sharply in the period of
liberalisation, and are especially onerous
when the farmer invests in seeds
produced by private companies, particularly
multinational corporations. The
farmers were often the victims of plain
cheating – they were sold spurious seed
and other inputs by unscrupulous traders.
Since 1991, farmers have had to witness
the massive withdrawal of the formal
sector credit from the
countryside, and have had
to borrow from the informal
sector at usurious rates
of interest for their production
and consumption
needs. Finally, when they
reaped a harvest, neo liberalism
and the new trade regime robbed
them of prices that could even cover
their costs, let alone earn them a livelihood.
Where the output itself is destroyed
by pest, disease or natural disaster,
the farmer was un-indemnified by
any system of insurance, and inadequately
compensated, if at all, by the
state. It is the stark reality that, for many
in our society and in such a situation,
suicide appears as the alternative of last
resort” (People’s Democracy, vol.30, no.
09, Feb 26, 2006). Market driven farm
diversification, not necessarily designed
differently but for the interests of corporate
sectors, exploited farm land, thereby
undermining ecological and fertility
balance. Globalisation and new trade
regime has made farmers condition vulnerable
and exposed to uncertainty
58 THE IIPM THINK TANK