Farmer suicides a worry for Madhya Pradesh

Farmer suicides a worry for Madhya Pradesh

Source: VSK-ENG      Date: 1/17/2013 2:46:55 PM

Bhopal, January 17, 2013 : Even after making a phenomenal growth in the agriculture sector, six farmers, including farm laborers, commit suicide every day in Madhya Pradesh state with experts and political leaders suspecting the growth as a fudged one.

According to official statistics, the central Indian state registered an impressive growth- 18 per cent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in agriculture in the current fiscal year (April 2012-March 2013), which is 15 per cent above the national average.

“The rosy picture of agriculture growth is nothing but a mechanical exercise far away from the reality,” said Govind Yadav, state president of Janata Dal United (united people’s party). He said that the state was doing nothing to help the financially weak farmers and instead was trying to acquire their land for commercial purposes.

The state is, however, witnessing continuous farmer suicides. According to state government’s statistics, 1,541 farmers, including farm laborers, committed suicide between March-October last year.

“The farmers are forced to end their lives as agriculture has become a loss making business,” said Badal Saroj, state general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

The withdrawal of subsidy to fertilizers, electricity, high cost of equipment and seeds has made agriculture a non-profitable business and life of marginal farmers miserable, he told.

Even the state government’s interest-free agricultural loan did not help the marginal farmers with small land holdings as they were unable to pay back even the loan amount on account of high cost involved in farming.

Recently, Shivraj Patel, a marginal farmer from Satna district committed suicide by setting himself on fire after bank officials continued to harass him for paying back a loan of 19000 rupees (US$ 347) he had taken in 2009.

The acquisition of agricultural land for commercial purposes in the state is too contributing to the suicide of farmers. The state government, according to Saroj, acquired approximately 243 hectares of agricultural land for commercial purpose, affecting a large chunk of farmers.

Farmers had to resort to novel ways of protest such as sitting in neck deep water and unlit payers to save their lands. The leader of a tribal political party Gulzar Singh Markam too disagreed with the government’s claim of bumper agriculture growth in the state. “Why so many farmers have to commit suicide everyday if everything is going on well with them?” he asked.

Markam lamented that the state government was not concerned about farmers at all to the extent that illiterate farmers did not even have the knowledge that their lands have been acquired. Besides this, he said that private money lenders too made their life miserable.

A team appointed by the federal government had pulled up the state government for forcefully acquiring farm land from vulnerable sections through threat and other illegal means.

Meanwhile, some regional parties have forged an alliance in the state to fight against forceful acquisition of agriculture land and save the farmers from committing suicides. However, the state government defended its position saying that farmers’ suicide was the result of hike in the fertilizer prices.

According to economist R S Tiwari, the state government’s projection of high agriculture growth has not helped to bring about any change in the plight of marginal farmers. Unless the government comes out with a policy to help poor farmers, they will not be able to sustain themselves in the current scenario, he said.                         (Source: UCANEWS)