In a little over a month, more than 80 persons purportedly belonging to the farming community have killed themselves in Odisha and the number is rising. The scourge of their suicides has enveloped the entire State, not discriminating between infrastructure-deprived, nature-dependent western and interior districts and the slightly better equipped coastal region. The damage control exercise is on full steam by the State government.
A Rs 1,000-crore package, suspension of loan recovery, waiver of water cess and crackdown on money lenders are among a host of measures announced to contain the spate of bad news. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has engaged himself in daily reviews while despatching ministers, MPs and MLAs along with top officials to the drought-hit districts. But there is no let up in the situation.
Suicides by farmers has, no doubt, rattled the administration. Because, for the first time in his over a decade-and-a-half reign, Naveen is beginning to sense the anger and resentment building up among the masses. His ministers and party leaders are facing very hostile receptions not only in the affected villages but also in urban and non-agricultural venues such as universities. Naveen can no longer dismiss the protests as Opposition-sponsored as those cannot have gained the momentum without the support of the masses. The slip is becoming apparent and none else but the State government is to be blamed for this.
Even as a severely deficient monsoon was forewarned much ahead of the kharif season this year, his government did not take serious note of prospects of crop loss and its impact on farmers. It sat pretty even when the first suicides began to be reported from August, dismissing those without the sensitivity such issues deserve. So much so, to this day not a single suicide has been officially attributed to crop loss or debt-induced hopelessness and it is unlikely that any will be.
Here lies the crux of all the ills plaguing farmers and the farming sector in the State. Far from acknowledging the suicides, the government is reluctant to concede the deaths as fallouts of extreme distress among farmers. It continues to have piecemeal and reactive approach as reflected in the rush of announcements without a vision or long-term road map for uplift of farmers and agriculture.
Farmer suicide is not a new phenomenon in Odisha. A State, perennially at the mercy of Nature’s extremes from flood and drought to cyclones, has a history with at least 3,600 farmers reported to have ended their lives since 1999. This year has, however, been alarming. True, every such death cannot be directly linked to the widespread crop loss caused by the drought situation in over 21 districts. But if even a minor proportion is found to have been affected by agrarian distress, it points to the failure of the government in addressing the critical issues even after being in power for more than 15 years. Though more than 60 per cent of the population is engaged in agriculture for livelihood, the sector languishes in dire state thanks to the absolute lack of focus on evolving mechanisms to safeguard agriculture and the agrarian community from the vagaries of nature.
The result is glaring. Agriculture’s share in GSDP has come down to around 15 per cent in 2013-14 from 70 in 1950s. Even after all these years, paddy remains the dominant crop constituting 90 per cent of Odisha’s total foodgrain production. While diversification is slow, fast diminishing returns from paddy is taking its toll. Add to this the failure of successive governments in extending irrigation facilities across the districts even after 68 years of independence.
The CAG report has brought to the fore severe lapses stating that the minimum 35 per cent irrigation target was met in only 60 of the 314 blocks by 2013. And thus, one season of flood or drought is enough to push the farmers to the edge. The State’s agriculture policies from the beginning have also failed to factor in the unique farmer demography leading to today’s situation. Unlike more agriculturally advanced states like Maharashtra, Punjab, etc., which are marked by major land holdings, small and marginal farmers constitute about 83 per cent of the farmers community in Odisha.
There are a large number of tenant farmers and share-croppers taking up agriculture on others’ lands. With no institutional credit support, they have no other option but to turn to money lenders. More appallingly, the government has no actual record of their status nor their number and they stand to be deprived of the compensation when disbursed.
Meanwhile, as politics yet again takes centre stage with the Opposition Congress and the BJP creaming the issue to put the BJD on the mat, the ruling party has also upped counter mechanisms. It has announced a farmers’ congregation in Bargarh, the heartland of farmers’ suicides, on November 19 to show it is sensitive to their plight and taking measures to alleviate their problems. But the unending spree of deaths has put a real test of governance for Naveen Patnaik. How he deals with the present crisis will define or demolish his image of leadership and more importantly, shape the future of Odisha.