As farmer suicides are becoming a routine affair in Odisha post drought situation, more worrying signs emerge as loan outstanding of marginal/small farmers clock a bigger rise in 2014-15. The warning shot is on the contrary the overall loan amount outstanding in whole farm sector posted a lower growth. Why this sounds ominous is Odisha is home to third largest indebted marginal/small farmers in the country.
For the fiscal year ended on March 2015, the farm loan outstanding in marginal/small farmer group (where amount borrowed is less than `2 lakh) in Odisha has grown by around 19 per cent to `60,027 million. But the overall loan outstanding in the farm sector as a whole recorded a lesser rise of around 12 per cent to `1,05,674 million.
This reveals that indebtedness in last one year has grown swiftly in poor farmer groups in Odisha. If average loan outstanding per account is looked, then the distress gets more pronounced with outstanding amount for poor farmers being pegged at around `42,876.
While the growth recorded is over 12 per cent for poor farmers, the growth in farm sector as a whole grew nominally by 0.6 per cent to `70,449. Significantly, the outstanding amount for small/marginal farmers in 2013 was `33,700.
According to Situational Assessment Survey by National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), the amount owed is higher than the farmers in same category owe in suicide prone Maharashtra. The same survey revealed that a high of around 79 per cent marginal farmers in Odisha are indebted, which is third highest nationally. This reveals the crux of agri-distress that is currently gripping Odisha as almost all of the around twenty odd suicides in just over 40 days are by marginal/small farmers (tilling below 4 acres land) and indebted too. Their crops also have no insurance cover.
Odisha’s problem is not suicides by farmers who borrow capital from private money lenders unlike in Maharashtra and Telengana/Andhra Pradesh. Rather, the alleged suicides till date reveal that they have borrowed from institutional lenders who avail the interest subvention scheme of the State/Centre and provide loans to farmers at cheap interest rates.
Now consider why the farmer in State still kills self. According to an analysis of the agriculture credit data available with the NSSO, farmers with below 1 hectare land in Odisha after meeting their monthly expenditure could avail a spare amount of `250-540 for investment in productive assets.
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Farmer indebtedness: State 3rd highest nationally
Since a farmer needs at least `1,000 per month towards crop-related expenses, he takes loan to meet the capital requirement to grow crops. And when the spectre of crop failure haunts him, he presses the panic button of killing self. It is here counselling of drought-hit farmers and crop insurance could prove the panacea for such troubled farmers in the State. Counselling is apparently a geek to Agriculture Department in Odisha and crop insurance has only a limited outreach.
Data shows around 14 lakh farmers of over 45 lakh in Odisha have insurance cover for their crops. But a mere around 2 lakh paddy farmers here could have their crops insured.