As apprehended in this column last week, the unfortunate incidents of suicide by farmers have been on the increase. These have been occasioned by the misfortune of failure of crops. The failure was partly caused by the climate change. Untimely heavy rain had its adverse impact on the paddy crop, either rotting on the ground or wrongly growing into germination. Both are disastrous. But till the other day, it was nowhere in the forefront that rampant attack of pests was already posing a problem of a serious magnitude.
It has been alleged that because of pests, almost five lakh acres of paddy crop has been adversely affected. It transpires that almost three lakh acres of land did not use any pesticides. The havoc of pests (of what is locally described as “Haladiapatra Bindha”) has spread out in Baleswar, Bargarh, Jharsuguda and Sundargarh districts. Balangir, Kalahandi and Nuapada have also been adversely affected by “Gandhi Poka”. “Chakada” has affected 1,10,000 hectares of paddy land in many districts. But the impact is on an area extending up to 1.71 lakh hectares of paddy land. It is also reliably learnt that about 40,000 hectares of Chakada-affected crop could not receive any form of pesticides. The farmers purchased pesticides on their own and landed with substandard or spurious pesticides leading to their plight.
The Government is supposed to provide up to Rs 500 per acre as subsidy for pesticides, both for the owner-farmers or sharecroppers. The scenario at the ground level is very disturbing and smacks of lack of sensitivity, alertness and timely effective response to a situation which could have been tackled. But how is it that not much of noise was heard regarding this widespread menaceIJ The answer is not far to find. For the last two to three months, farmers have been agitating and expressing their grievances to the State authorities about the pest menace that had crept into their standing paddy crop. There was no timely supply of pesticides. There was hardly any action on the part of the authorities to meet this emerging situation. Finally, the farmers were driven to purchasing pesticides from the market and fell prey to substandard and spurious pesticides which rang their death knell.
We must not forget that our farmer does not have adequate social security though pest menace is compensable through insurance schemes. The administrators of the scheme are so officious and insensitive that the actual benefit never reaches the affected farmer. There seems to have been an unholy nexus between the departmental authorities at the operational level and the unethical traders of substandard and spurious pesticides.
This cannot be explained away as merely blaming a systemic failure. It is obviously a human failure and lack of effective administration by the concerned Government department. Some farmers were driven to burning the pest-affected crops.
The Government was initially bureaucratic enough to hold out a denial to them of the conservative relief measures. Burning the crop may not be providing any adequate solution, but he who has toiled to grow the crop had been driven to the unreasonable act of torching the same crop. Obviously, the burnt-down crop was pest-affected. Though burning it provides no solution at all, a blanket denial of any relief benefit to those who have torched their crop is not based on any appropriate and sensitive appreciation of the plight of the farmer who has lost all that was his. Fortunately, the Government (on Monday) has permitted provision of relief measures for the crops set on fire.
While the relief measures will continue, as prescribed in the governmental orders, we have to derive a lesson from this unfortunate episode. The situation was avoidable and the outcome of apathy and lack of adequate timely response on the part of administration. The problem was not insoluble and is the damaging outcome of man-made failures. Pests have affected, as per available reports, 27 districts. The entire agricultural sector is under threat and peril. The backbone of the farmers should not be permitted to be incurably affected. Had timely action been taken when first murmurs of pest menace was first reported, the situation could have been otherwise. But unfortunately, there was inadequate response, lack of alertness and absence of timely effective remedial steps so as to contain and rectify the situation.
Unfortunately, nobody appeared concerned, other than the sufferers. The youths in the agricultural sector did not raise their voice and demand proactive remedial invention by the concerned authorities. The menace of pest did not come to the fore till the last-minute exposure by the media occasioned by the farmers killing themselves. Waterlogging, rotting of crops and unwanted germination were the factors that were engaging the attention of the authorities.
In the year 2017, with a stable and majority Government, which has ruled for 18 years, apathy and indolence are unfortunate symptoms. It shows the utter callousness on the part of our community to the needs of the food provider. The youths in the villages linked with farming have also failed in their duties. The so-called intelligentsia and academia have also failed in fulfilling their social obligation. You have the precarious and unenviable situation of unethical dealers unable to account for their stocks. Trading pesticides have been going on without adequate authorisation through licensing. Obviously, there is an unholy nexus between some unethical officials and equally or more unethical dealers of pesticides. One is reminded of the fodder scam of Bihar. Otherwise, ordinarily, one would not expect people to earn ill-gotten money out of the most heinous act of supplying substandard and spurious pesticides to gullible farmers and finally lead them to their ruin.
What should have concerned all of us has not received adequate attention. The present tragedy will again get buried in bureaucratic history.
None of us can be forgiven and, more so, those who are in authority, for having neglected the rice bowl and for being insensitive to the future of our society.
The Relief Code will be pressed into service and some relief will reach some of the needy, but, meanwhile, we would have fractured the backbone of the farming community in an irreparable and irremediable manner. There has been enough of lip service to the cause of the farming community. That must be brought to an end and more pragmatic, meaningful and proactive steps are to be initiated by the authorities. Agriculture is still a neglected sector in our State, and we are not waking up even when the death knell is ringing to our peril and is ushering in disaster. Migrant labour shall be the identity of our society and that would not speak well all of us after more than 70 years of Independence. There is a need for the voice of the people to be raised in this regard. lip service must stop and sincere and meaningful efforts and measures should forthwith be implemented. This is feasible and achievable. But it requires involvement of all of us. It is not to be left for the media to highlight but the damage to persist. It is time for combined efforts of the food consumers and the food producers that can prevent such sordid episodes from being repeated. This requires an effort by all of us. Surely, this concerns us all!
(The writer, a Senior Advocate, is a former All India Service officer, a former diplomat, a former editor, a former President of Orissa High Court Bar Association and a former Advocate General of Odisha. jayantdas@hotmail.com)