Thousands of small betel farmers in coastal Odisha have been constantly facing the brunt of frequent natural calamities that damage their betel vines but while they donot get adequate and timely compensation against their loss, the Covid-19 pandemic has added to their misery. In the ongoing time of lockdown and shutdown, the sale of their crop in local market as well as outside has been badly hit.
These farmers also have reeling under issues of lack of institutional support under agriculture sector such as input subside, credit, MSP and a host of other facilities available for other crops.
Rabindra Bhoi and Santosh Bhoi from Raghuagarada village in Balipatana block of Khurda district are small betel farmers. They manage their livelihood by betel vine cultivation but these days they are continuously incurring loss due to frequent visits of cyclones, erratic rains and tornadoes. The lockdown and shutdown have almost damaged their livelihood in the absence of adequate and timely Government support to compensate their frequent losses. Both Dalit small farmers have no other means of livelihood. Similar problems are also faced by Tuku Behera and Basant Behera and hundreds of small Dalit farmers and sharecroppers in costal districts, who are in dire straits.
Akshya Das, a betel farmer and farmer leader of Dhenkia in Jagatsighpur district, told that about 7,000 betel farmers of Erasama block were not being compensated in spite of their losses and for last five months their condition had been worse due to the lockdown and shutdown owing to Covid 19.
A large chunk of these farmers is Dalit and daily wage earners in betel gardens and many of the betel gardens are in common land yet to be recorded in the names though they have been in possession of the land since generations. In spite of long time protests by peasants, there is no survey and settlement to ensure the landless are allotted land in these areas.
These farmers used to send betel leaf to Mumbai and Kalkota by trains with special arrangement. Late Loknath Choudhury, former CPI MP, had made a request to the Government of India for allocating special compartment to export betel to Mumbai. But unfortunately, these days, leaders are not much interested in issues of betel farmers and their plight seems to be no man's concern. Hundreds of betel farmers were displaced and lost their livelihood for land accusation by the Government in the name of industries in Jagatsingpur district and this process is still continuing without any industry. Rather, the traditional livelihood of people has been minimized which threw many jobless.
Sanjit Swain, a betel framer organizer of Nuahata market in Kakatpur block of Puri district told that about 10,000 betel farmers in the block were silently suffering without any help from the Government. He also told that last time the meagre amount of compensation against heavy loss due to cyclone was not through proper survey by officials. Rather the beneficiaries were selectively chosen who were supporters of the ruling party, he alleged.
These days due to the pandemic, the farmers have started destroying their crops and are under tremendous pressure to pay off loan. The harvesting period of betel is within two weeks and after harvesting it has to be sold immediately, otherwise it will perish soon due to lack of storage facility. The intermediary businessman and exporter are getting better price than the farmer in the absence of better storage and transport facility though there is a good demand for export of betel outside the local market within India and South Asia.
The coastal areas of Odisha have remained backward without much industrialisation and urbanisation and lack of communication links due to rivers and their small tributaries cris-crossing the area. Water logging and insufficient irrigation have continued as a major impediment relating to agriculture in coastal areas. Mostly the costal farmers are dependent on paddy, betel and fish cultivation, apart from seasonal vegetables. Still betel continues as a major cash crop here. Considering the gravity of the issue of the betel farmers, the State Government must come out to help them financially in restoration of shades of their betel vine and take steps for resolving the marketing problem during Covid-19, feel many.
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