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Dying Fields
With foodgrain
prices crashing and debts mounting, farmers in Kerala are now resorting
to suicide. Is there no lasting solution to the grassroots problem, asks
India Today Principal Correspondent M.G. Radhakrishnan.
It
was a difficult decision for an 18-year-old. An unemployed youth with
ambition, C. Ramesh of Nenmara in Palakkad district of Kerala refused
to get disillusioned. Unlike most of his friends who were idling away
their time till they found themselves jobs, he decided to take to farming.
But it wasn't going to be easy since he neither owned land nor money.
After running from pillar to post, he managed to secure a loan and lease
1.5 acres of farming land from neighbour. Along with his brother, he started
cultivating vegetables and ginger. The effort paid off: within no time,
the two brothers were able to reap a good harvest. But the crashing ginger
prices a few months ago changed everything. The downturn left Ramesh and
his family penniless. Worse, the creditors began to press Ramesh for their
money. The once-optimistic Ramesh couldn;t take it any more. Completely
disillusioned, he took his life by consuming pesticide last month.
Just a week earlier, T. Velayudhan, a 60-year-old farmer from Palakkad
district, also committed suicide. As have 10 paddy farmers in the surrounding
areas, taking the number of such mishaps to 25 in the past six months.
The reason in almost all cases has been the same. With the prices of foodgrains
on a rapid downslide and costs of production shooting up, the farmers
have been unable to make ends meet, let alone repay their mounting debts.
"If things continue like this, more than 100 farmers are likely to
end their lives by the year-end," says T. Govindan Kutty, a farmers'
union leader, mocking at the land reforms introduced in the state two
decades ago.
Significantly, almost all farm commodities traditionally produc
—paddy, coconut, rubber, pepper, cashew and arecanut—have witnessed
a fall in prices in the past two years. The downslide, according to experts,
is a direct result of increased imports of most of these commodities as
part of the trade liberalisation polices followed by the Centre. The Kerala
State Planning Board estimates the loss on account of the dip in prices
at Rs 4,000 crore. In Palakkad district alone, farmers have run up a deficit
of more than Rs 100 crore in repaying loans availed from various banks.
With the burden increasing, panic is spreading fast. The Opposition Left
Democratic Front has launched a statewide agitation to draw the attention
of the Government to the farmers' woes. "Problems of farmers are
to get top priority," says Chief Minister A.K. Antony, who convened
an urgent meeting of bankers to consider a cut in penal interest on loans
availed by farmers. In a desperate attempt at damage-control, he also
announced a series of measures, including slashing the purchase tax rates
on various farm commodities like rubber, coffee and arecanut and providing
increased incentives for the export of rubber procured at a minimum price.
But he knows he will have to think up more concrete measures to provide
a lasting solution to the problem. After all, it's not just a question
of boosting the farm economy. It's a matter of life over death.
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