BENGALURU: Farmers in the state are preparing for one more round of showdown with the state government, even as Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy made a beginning to deliver on his promise of farm loan waiver by launching the distribution of ‘Debt-free certificates.’ Though the programme has raised hopes of some relief for them from the debt burden, the continuing incidence of farmers’ suicides, which has crossed 220 since the programme was announced, reflects a bigger crisis that has gripped the farm sector in the state.
Karnataka has the largest tracts of arid drylands after Rajasthan in the country. Successive droughts over the last six years, except for some respite in between, have left the farmers here run up huge debts. The volatile market system has added to their misery. The current year too has brought tears for the tillers as 100 taluks are under the grip of drought again. Incessant rain, floods and landslides have devastated not just crops, but even their homes and land in 45 taluks.
While the state had targeted 74.69 lakh hectares for sowing in the Kharif season for 2018, actual sowing was done in 66.69 lakh hectares and sprouting was reported in just 27.36 lakh hectares, which is 41 per cent of the sown area. The successive crop losses have pushed farmers under heavy debt burden and the delay in implementing loan waiver is turning them restive.
“The farm loan waiver is, however, a temporary relief for the indebted farmer, not a solution for the crisis that has gripped the farm sector,” says Kurubur Shantha Kumar, the president of the Karnataka State Sugarcane Farmers’ Association as he lists the factors that have worsened the crisis in the agriculture sector.
The consecutive droughts, with intermittent floods, have shown the impact that climate change can have on the lives of farmers. The rise in farm input costs, scarcity and high cost of labour, policy weaknesses under the banner of Green Revolution, and mechanisation approach raised the cost of production without any means to raise the net income of farmers, says Shantha Kumar, pointing out the failure of our agriculture universities, and research and development organisations to develop crop varieties that withstand drought conditions, and reduce cost of farming.
“The Green Revolution succeeded in raising the production to make India self-sufficient in food grains. But the seed, fertilizer, and tractor-oriented programme dealt a blow for traditional farming advantages, resulting in a rise in cost of production. It forced the farmers to borrow more but without any mechanism to increase their net income. The bumper production usually causes big fall in price of the commodity, pushing the farmer to further penury,” Shantha Kumar says.
Globalisation and free market economy have also contributed to market volatility. With 90 per cent of the farmers having very small land holdings, the option of mechanised farming becomes impractical. “The cost of labour constitutes about 32 per cent of the agriculture cost,” according to Karnataka Agriculture Price Commission Chairman T N Prakash Kammardi.
The weaknesses in government policies have compounded the problem, with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme contributing to the crisis. The demand to link the employment guarantee scheme to agriculture to help the small and marginal farmers has failed to evoke favourable response so far from successive governments at the Centre.
The failure of policy planners and the political leadership to evolve a realistic crop insurance scheme is a big letdown. R S Deshpande, the former Director of Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), sees the crop insurance schemes, including the one announced by the Modi government, as more beneficial to insurance companies than farmers. “There is no effective intervention in terms of funding, infrastructure, market mechanism or insurance to break this cycle of farm crisis,” says Deshpande.
It is not just these factors that have pushed farmers into a web of crisis. Changing social life and the rise in cost of education and healthcare have also contributed to the debt burden and rising suicides of farmers.
Apart from improving availability of finance for agriculture and strengthening the market system and crop insurance schemes, a slew of welfare programmes targeted at farmers’ children, especially for their education, and ramping up of social and economic infrastructure in rural areas are required to make a difference in the lives of farmers.