March 9, 1998

A pest attack and unseasonal rains damage tur dal crops in Bidar district forcing farmers to end their lives

By Stephen David

Nanna ganda satha mele nanage bere dari illa, sahaya madi nanage (There's no way out for me after my husband's death, please help me somehow)," wails Vimalabai, 30, clutching her two-year-old son at Bhatambra village in Bidar district. Tears welling in her eyes, the mother of two boys narrates a familiar tale in the region: her husband Bhojraj Dulappa, 35, a tur dal farmer committed suicide on February 14 after losing his crop to a pest attack and incurring debts of Rs 30,000. On that fateful day, he went to his field and consumed the very pesticide meant to protect his crop.

"How will I clear the dues and feed my children?" asks the grief-stricken widow. Hers is not an isolated case. With Dulappa's death, the toll from suicides by desperate tur dal farmers in the district, predominantly the small and marginal ones, rose to seven in February. Cornered by unexpected crop losses due to pest attacks and outstanding loans -- ranging from Rs 20,000 to Rs 90,000 -- the affected farmers are consuming pesticides to end their misery.

"The situation has become so bad that for the first time farmers are taking their own lives," says Abhay Prakash, principal secretary, agriculture. Unexpected heavy rains, aided by a pest attack, destroyed at least 39,000 hectares -- about 80 per cent of the total area under cultivation in Bidar -- of tur dal crop during the harvest season of November-December 1997. According to a state Government report, out of a total 2.2 lakh hectares sown during the kharif season, 1.6 lakh hectares have been affected. Consequently, production, normally 1.7 lakh tonnes a year, has fallen to 1.02 lakh tonnes this year, leading to a loss of Rs 52.03 crore.

After a study of the alarming trend, Bidar District Deputy Commissioner Sandeep Dave sent a report to the chief minister on February 17, pointing out that the crop failure was mainly due to the district receiving rainfall measuring 68.6 cm during November last year (normally it is 18.9 cm). S. Lingappa, professor and head of entomology, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, says that the heavy rains and high humidity led to the unusual proliferation of the tur pod borer pest (helicoverpa armigera). "The pests attacked Gulbarga district in 1992 over almost 1.2 lakh hectares," says Lingappa. "This seems to be happening every five years and we are evolving a mechanism to predict these attacks."

Meanwhile, a committee under the principal secretary, agriculture, is expected to announce relief measures by March 5, 1998. But, says Babu Rao Piraji, who sustained a loss of Rs 70,000 on his 10 acres: "So far there is no word from the state Government. I don't know if our losses will be compensated." For the small and marginal farmers this is a big blow because they have neither insured their crops nor were they able to prevent the pests from causing severe damage.

Farmers of all categories have been investing their time, money and skill on growing tur dal and other grams in Bidar, which accounts for almost 60 per cent of Karnataka's output over the past several years. They have been borrowing money to buy pesticides at high interest rates (ready cash can fetch a two-litre can of pesticide for Rs 600 and on credit for Rs 1,000) from local shops and money-lenders. Dave puts the investment on tur dal at Rs 500 per hectare in terms of seeds and fertilisers.

Karnataka Agriculture Minister C. Byre Gowda, busy with election campaigning, says that he has asked the state chief secretary to look into the matter. "We have decided to give relief of Rs 500 per hectare (a maximum of Rs 2,000 per farmer). For that we need at least Rs 10 crore," he says. However, the minister refuses to link the deaths of farmers to crop losses: "Some of them could have committed suicide for failing to repay loans raised to start a business or small-scale industry."

Bidar district Krishik Samaj President Ishwar Chakote, who says he suffered a loss of Rs 2 lakh on seeds and fertilisers on his 40-acre holding in Bhalki taluk, has in a memorandum to the prime minister asked for funds from the Prime Minister's Relief Fund (the Karnataka Government's demand for Rs 500 crore relief from the Centre has still not been met). He blames the District Credit Cooperative Bank (DCCB) for not coming to the aid of the farmers. Chakote led an agitation of farmers on January 4 when Prime Minister I.K. Gujral inaugurated the diamond jubilee celebrations of the dccb in Bidar. Incidentally, on the same day the state Government reached an agreement with its striking employees for payment of interim relief at 20 per cent of basic pay. "The state Government doesn't mind coughing up Rs 320 crore (the expense incurred by the exchequer for calling off the strike) for its employees. But when it comes to aiding farmers in distress, it says it has no money," says Bapu Rao of Bhatambra village, who suffered a loss of Rs 50,000 after his tur dal crop on 10 acres was damaged.

The farmers' lot is distressing indeed. "We have to borrow from others for survival," says Kasturbai, whose husband Bharat Shankarappa Dhanuray, 35, committed suicide on February 2 after the family's 10-acre crop of tur dal was completely destroyed. With three sons and a daughter to look after, she is forced to work as a coolie to keep the home fires burning. Elsewhere in Kuntesirsi village, 30-year-old Kanakavathi, the mother of a four-month-old child, is struggling to piece together her shattered life after her husband Dilip killed himself by consuming pesticide early this month after running up a debt of Rs 50,000.

In Siddeshwara village, Chinnamma, 33, no longer plays the dutiful housewife. The mother of four sons and a daughter (aged between two and 10) has stepped out of her house for the first time to work as a coolie after her husband Shivakumar, 35, swallowed pesticide and died last month. "When my husband died, I couldn't even afford to cremate his body," she wails. "It was the villagers who pooled in money and helped me. Tell me how long can I carry on struggling to feed my children?"

For Chief Minister J.H. Patel and his cabinet colleagues, winning the elections has apparently taken precedence over the woes of the farmers. In his campaign speeches, he did not even touch on the issue of farmers committing suicide, a striking resemblance to the incidents in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh early this year. With his Agriculture Minister Byre Gowda not even planning a visit to the affected region, Patel cannot be blamed for not understanding the magnitude of the problem.

But the spate of deaths has stirred the Opposition into organising a massive rally in Bidar on March 7 in support of the farmers. "The state Government should pay at least Rs 1 lakh compensation to each family that has lost its breadwinner and clear the farmers' debts," says former minister and Bidar district Congress leader Bhimanna Khandre. Thankfully for the ruling Janata Dal, the deaths are yet to become an emotive issue with the electorate in Karnataka.

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