ANANTAPUR: Over the past 16 months, one mandal in Anantapur district has reported 11 farmer suicides. The district officials have confirmed the data but with a small variation. According to them, 12 farmers died by suicide in the drought-prone Kuderu mandal in January 2021.
Besides the burden of debts, damage to crops due to inclement climate, lack of water for irrigation, drought and poor market prices for the yield pushed the farmers to take the extreme step. On March 29 this year, Ranganayakulu ended his life as he was unable to clear his debts. He had cultivated pomegranate on nearly 11.5 acres after taking the land on lease. He invested more than Rs 22 lakh for the crop expecting good returns. Unfortunately, pests infested the crop.
Yet to come to terms with the loss of her husband and bleak future staring at her daughters, Ranganayakulu’s wife has been seeking help from the government even as officials are yet to collect the family’s details to begin the process of providing compensation.
On March 16, another farmer Sanjeev Kumar of Kalagallu died by suicide. He, too, took the extreme step as he was unable to clear a debt of Rs 14 lakh. Kumar had cultivated citrus, along with tomato and groundnut as internal crops, on his four-acre land. He suffered losses as he did not get a remunerative price for groundnut and tomato. His wife Shatnamma is expecting her third child. The couple had two daughters.
In Kuderu, farmers cultivate horticulture crops such as pomegranate, chilli, banana and citrus on nearly 10,000 acres and agriculture crops like groundnut, red gram, paddy and castor oil seeds on about 36,470 acres. They are mostly dependent on rains and borewells for irrigation.
For the past three years, the groundnut crop has suffered due to pest attacks and changes in climatic conditions. Pests have also affected chill yield which has dropped to 2-3 quintals for each acre from 5-6 quintals. Since January 2022, there have been 11 farmer suicides in the mandal. However, officials said they have identified 12 such cases in the last two years.
“We have identified 12 farmers who have died by suicide since 2021. The department has also sent reports of ten farmers to the Commissioner of Agriculture Department. Three of the families have received compensation and the rest of the families will receive it within a short period. We have been preparing the reports of two farmers and will be sending them to the Commissionerate. Measures will be taken for providing compensation to the bereaved families,” Anantapur RDO Madhusudhan said.
According to reports, at least three farmers ended their lives between March 10 and 29 this year due to the burden of debts.
In order to get compensation in case of death by suicide, it is mandatory that families of the deceased obtain several documents from the police department initially.
A First Information Report, a Panchanama report, a post-mortem report, a forensic report, and a final report by the recommending committee, consisting of MRO and SI, and recommendations from the Agriculture Officer are required.
District administrations should certify death instances and make recommendations for any compensation. These cumbersome administrative procedures were not followed by many families earlier who lost their breadwinners due to debts and unexplained maladies.
Further, this has led to a huge gap between the actual number and official figures on account of the documents required to prove the death of a farmer as a genuine case of farm-related suicide. While the State government has reduced the number of mandatory documents from 13 to 5 in a bid to make the process hassle-free, lack of awareness and education has led to families of the deceased farmers failing to produce the documents.