Farmer suicide in Odisha is big global news today. As we get to know, the Agriculture Minister trashes the reported plight of farmers in distress, saying the media is constantly engaged in hypes for ensuring saleability of the print or electronic outfits, most of which are under severe financial stress. Simple research indicates the bragging Minister could be remotely correct in the sense that not all farmer suicide cases are due to crop failure, particularly in the coastal region, where love for farming has waned shockingly since long.
All the same, there is also a lot of misreporting and conspiracy theorising about the new farm suicide numbers. Farmers without clear land title, for instance, are not recognised as farmers, thereby artificially projecting a much lower number. The media reporting farm suicides may also be an incentive for the police reporting an ordinary death as farm suicide. Most importantly, agro support officials are dumb creatures and virtually know nothing of farmer security mechanisms in place. Even the higher authorities expected to be great thinkers and able doers do know nothing of even the simplest of protective facilities like the loudly-hyped and talked about ‘Crop Insurance’ in place for long. The entire range between the agriculture field chiefs and the closest-to- farmer extension officers gape into the skies when asked what’s to be done to protect farmers against crop failure due to drought, pest attack, sub-standard seeds and manure supply, demand decline, apart from bank apathy of various kinds including heartless and untimely and underfunding. The big brags including the Minister, who only screams instead of talking, do hardly know anything about the safety net provided to distressed farmers.
In 2014, India recorded 12,360 farm suicides. This is slightly more than the number of farmer suicides registered in 2013, but in general there is a slow decline in the number of officially-recorded farm suicides. (Right top box)
The National Crime Research Bureau (NCRB) lately split the farmer community into two categories: ‘cultivators’ and ‘agricultural labourers’. The Census guys use the same expressions as well. For purposes of comparison with previous years, it makes most sense to stick to the overall agriculture category, as was done in past years. (Below box)
Maharashtra is India’s farm suicide epicentre. Nearly half of all suicides by cultivators in 2014 were in Maharashtra alone, with Telangana following. (Below Box)
A leading newspaper claimed that from this year on, the NCRB is classifying only those suicides among farmers that were ostensibly for agriculture-related reasons as farm suicides. This is simply not true. As in past years, there is a range of official reasons behind a suicide, as per the First Information Report (the sum of which makes up NCRB numbers).
This year, the NCRB includes a breakup by cause for some professions including farmers and armed forces personnel. For farmers, over 40 per cent of suicides can be attributed to bankruptcy or farming-related problems.
A thorough research by exceedingly unprejudiced experts gives the following findings: (Right top box)
This clearly illustrates the problems with making farming profitable and extending agricultural credit appropriately. The economics of farming in India does not project a happy picture. More farmers are eager to abandon farming than sticking to that. (Right Box)
The Government of Odisha claims that none of the 2,632 farmer suicides during last ten years was triggered by agriculture-linked distress.From the national point of view, farmer suicide is a serious problem. All-India total farm suicides between 1995 and 2010 provoked India’s Human Right Commission to seek reports from three States on spate of farm suicides. Reportedly, 800 farmers committed suicide in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala in 2011. Most of the farmer suicide cases have been linked to poverty, debt, rise in price as much as failure of crops. Two lakh farmers have killed themselves since 1997 as per the BBC reports that say many farmers in India were enticedto take loan to buy unnecessary supplies including implements for which Government of India had announced a 1.5-billon-rupee waiver which never happened as the farmers imagined would occur.
Odisha is still a predominantly agrarian society. Most of the people directly or indirectly depend on agriculture which is attributed togambling of monsoon. There is much debate on figures of suicide cases. More than 17,500 farmers committed suicide between 2002 and 2006, mostly in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. In 2006, Maharashtra with 4,453 farmer suicides accounted for over a quarter of the all-India number. The farmers in these States are dedicatedly aggressive and ambitious farmers unlike in Odisha. The crop varieties are just too many: food grains to fruits and vegetables, oilseeds through cotton, pisciculture as well as poultry and livestock.
Odisha is primarily limited to cereal grains and some oilseeds where the poor farmers are involved. Horticulture and big farming are the prerogative domains of the rich and powerful. Some report says the boastful agro Minister of Odisha too owns a huge farm with luxury facilities to entertain biggies who are likely to determine his fate. He has never made public the economics of his own farming activities to create replicable models.
According to P Sainath, although NCRB data confirm an appalling 1.5 lakh farmer suicides between 1997 and 2005, the figure is probably much bigger. More perhaps than any other social phenomenon, suicide is due to indiscriminate liberalisation and imperialist-led globalisation in the countryside. No wonder, farmer suicide has mostly occurred in prosperous regions of India, namely, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
The Odisha Government’s thinkers, planners, strategists and various welfare-benefitting scheme implementers need to undergo rigorous training to transmit and share critical skills with the farmers. In the event of laxity and casualness, officials be demoted or dismissed. Without exemplary punishment, the seemingly deep-rooted State employees won’t improve professional conduct.
Most importantly, a robust, failsafe, truly farmer-friendly crop insurance mechanism can save farmers everywhere, particularly in Odisha where most farming communities are marginal and small in stature and not aggressively ambitious.
lastly, the media has to devote some time to quality research before making reports public. Mediapersons of today are more worried to keep job by hook or by crook than doing true reporting. The corporatisation of media has caused this situation. Sensation of any kind is routinely highlighted, no matter if no element of truth does exist.
Farmers are indeed dying of frustration. But all deaths are not farmer suicides as reported by the media. Domestic discord, alcoholism, luxury debts, high-interest hand loans and various other factors including incurable diseases could be the reason behind the deaths. Wicked people and touts appear as do-gooders and incite affected families to project death as if linked to farm loans. The touts steal most of the corrupt harvest; the suffering family hardly gets anything.
The State has to make clear how crop insurance works and to encourage all poor farmers to take advantage by making them aware of the benefits through the hitherto-ignorant and casual officials busy in stealing the monthly salary without working as expected.
(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)