The Government of Odisha has introduced a separate Agriculture Budget for development of the farming sector. This year the Budget is close to Rs 15,000 crore which is just double the sum of money allocated for 2013-14 Budget of Rs 7,162 crore.
It is said that about 62 per cent of the State population depends on agriculture and around 18 per cent of the GSDP comes from agriculture. The Planning and Coordination Department has reported about the decrease of cultivation in agricultural land and also the number of farmers in the State.
The State continues its dependency on neighbouring States for vegetables, potato, onion, oil, fruits, pulses, eggs, fish and meat etc. and there has been seasonal migration due to non-availability of work in agricultural sector in the State. So, it is important to develop the agriculture sector for food security, employment and growth of the State economy. But it has been observed that there is no major change in agriculture sector in terms of land reform, irrigation, access to electricity, credit facility, marketing, insurance and modernization of agriculture technology. The slow progress is contributing to the distress of landless sharecroppers who are more vulnerable to different hardships in the agriculture sector.
It is said that during the last ten years from 2005 to 2014, on an average about 20 farmers committed suicide every month for various reasons in Odisha. Payment of compensation is not the solution to the problem of agrarian distress and farmer suicide; rather it requires structural change in agricultural sector through change in policy and laws for more realistic intervention to change the distress condition. In spite of the budgetary allocation, why the condition of small and marginal farmers and sharecroppers in the State has not been changing to the desired extent and the poor farmer hopelessly continue to suffer in debt bondage and seasonal crop loss is a matter that requires serious attention. Natural calamities and distress sale in the absence of MSP and marketing facilities have added to the woes of the hapless farmers.
Sudama Khatua (40) of Pakharabada in Baincha Panchayat under Sadar police station of Baleswar district was a landless sharecropper. He was a vegetable cultivator and had taken credit from a village moneylender. Distress sale and debt burden were major causes of his suicide.
T Bulu Reddy (33) of Tikarada under Rangeilunda block in Ganjam district lost his crop due to untimely rain. He was a small farmer and sharecropper and had engaged in vegetable cultivation with credit from a village moneylender. His son in eighth standard was not well because of health problem. Finally he committed suicide.
Hadu Bagarti (55) of Kendupali in Baragada district was a vegetable cultivator and he lost paddy and vegetable crop due to lack of irrigation facility. Though he has deep bore wells but there was no electricity to irrigate the crop. He had also taken credit from the village moneylender. So out of utter distress, he committed suicide.
Sibaprasad Bhatra (46) of Sanamasig in Nabarangpur district was into vegetable cultivation but he suffered huge crop loss. He had also taken loan from banks and his final decision was to end life.
Jhakar Sabar (65) and his wife Jamuna Sabar (60) of Simelpali village under Thikapali panchayat in Nuapada block committed suicide and two of his sons left for an outside State as distressed migrant workers. They had been in distress due to crop failure and debt bondage with credit of a local money lender. Hence the causes for these people taking the extreme steps were more or less the same— crop loss, distress sale and loan burden etc.
The Government officials investigating the suicide cases do not maintain transparency in reporting the cases which leads to resentment among the villagers of the deceased farmers. The Government officials are motivated with ruling party interest rather than reporting in a neutral manner. This leads to denial of facts and ground reality which ultimately affect the timely intervention. This has also forced people to take law into their own hand to register their protest.
The Central Government has allocated agricultural credit of Rs 10 lakh crore along with other agricultural development schemes which include interest waiver, irrigation, insurance against natural calamities and support price and marketing facilities. This year, the State Government budget allocation for irrigation and flood control is Rs 9,200 crore. The budget under agriculture credit for interest subvention to cooperative and commercial banks is Rs 435 crore along with Rs 35 crore to the State cooperative banks and Rs 7 crore to the primary agriculture cooperative societies (PACS). Credit is available for farmers at an interest rate of 1 per cent up to Rs 50, 000 and 2 per cent for loans above Rs 50, 000. The State Government has allocated its own share of Rs 265 crore to the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana to provide quick relief and adequate compensation to the farmers. The Biju Krushak Kalyana Yojana has been implemented through a network of 100 hospitals to take care of the health need of the 57 lakh farmer families and Rs 88 crore has been allocated for the purpose. But these allocations are not reaching to the real farmers.
There has been denial of land reform, land distribution and consolidation of holdings, to make available land for agricultural workers and sharecroppers. Tenancy reform has not been done to protect the interest of the sharecroppers. The Government of Odisha has not passed any legislation to protect the sharecroppers and recognize them as real farmers to avail the host of benefits for the farmers. The Odisha State Assembly Standing Committee on farmers has recommended for welfare of sharecroppers and tenant farmers to access agricultural credit, subsidy, and compensation and welfare schemes by making necessary amendment in revenue laws as early as possible. It is unfortunate that all the agricultural schemes, subsidy, loan waiver, insurance and MSP benefits primarily go to the land owning farmers and a major chunk of land owning farmers is absentee land lords. The commercial banks, insurance companies and rural land owners are the beneficiaries of Government spending on agriculture but the real farmers are very insignificantly covered.
The State Government is not adequately investing on marketing network and marketing infrastructure to timely support the farmers. The vegetable farmers of the State have no cold storage facilities. In the absence of post-harvest storage facilities, the farmers are being forced for distress sale to the private traders.
The Collector of Keonjhar has made a good plan for the tomato farmers for seasonal disbursement of the produce to the local consumers of residential schools run by the ST and SC Development Department. Recently, the Government of West Bengal has decided to buy potatoes directly from the farmers to supply to the Anganwadi centers and mid-day meal programmes. This is an attempt to counter the distress condition of the potato farmers when there are reports of farmer suicide due to heavy losses and debt. But unfortunately, the Government of Odisha has no such proactive step to arrest the distress sale of vegetables by the farmers.
Though there is a huge scope of supply of vegetables to Aganwadies, mid-day meal, residential schools and Ahara Kendras, it is not tapped. The direct purchase of vegetables such as potato, onion, tomato, cabbage, etc from small and marginal farmers and sharecroppers by the Government with minimum support price will be helpful to lakhs of seasonal vegetable growers who thereby can have an assured income. It will add to the income of farmers and change their quality of life. On the other side, the consumers can have quality vegetables in standard price, particularly it will be much helpful to consumers those who are getting exploited by the middle men and traders in between farmer and consumers.
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