Market driven suicide

Suicide is an act of desperation. A last resort, when all hope is lost. In the last decade, farmers committing suicide has become commonplace in India. Was it solely the government policies that drove them to this act? Or do they also have a part to play in their own tragic end?

Tukaram, a wizened seventy year old man, works on several acres of land alone to support himself and his wife. His sons used to help him, but they left the village of Tyren in Maharashtra for Mumbai in search of work. Tukaram’s plight is like many elders in the village who have been left behind to fend for themselves. He works on land owned by land owners and in return he is allowed a percentage of the grains harvested, this percentage depends on landowner’s whim.

However, if the weather has been bad, all his work is in vain - he gets nothing. Landowner Vilas Dalvi says, “I usually don’t give Tukaram a salary, but he has free reign over the land, and he keeps all the produce. But there are other landowners who demand the produce and do not even provide a salary.”

It comes as no surprise then that the new generation of farmers is not satisfied with this hand to mouth existence, and is looking towards the cities for a better way of life.

But life does not get better. With no vocational skills other than farming, like millions of the other migrants from villages to cities, Tukaram’s sons are also struggling simply to survive in Mumbai. They are unable to send back enough money to support their parents. Leaving Tukaram with no respite, he must continue to till the unpredictable land. But fortunately Tukaram is not in debt.

Debt has been one of the major factors responsible for the high suicide rates amongst farmers. In 2004, Frontline[1] reported that 401 farmers committed
suicide in Maharashtra itself. In 2006 the death toll increased by 232 per cent, and in 2007 it has reached 250 and is rising, as can be seen in chart one.[2]Some of these farmers committed suicide over a little as 10,000 rupees (Rs) (£110).

Chart one: Increase in number of suicides from January 2002- December 2006

The recent boom in India’s economy (Chart two) does not seem to be having an effect on its masses, especially those in rural areas. If anything, in the last decade matters in the agriculture sector have become worse.

Chart two: GDP growth rate for India from January 2002- December 2006
This is a worrying trend. India’s agricultural sector employs over 73 per cent of India’s population but produces only 25 per cent of India’s GDP.[3] There is evidently a huge disparity between the people employed in the sector and the income. Since income is not sufficient, people then are forced to take loans, with interest rates as high as nine per cent. If the bank refuses them the loan, the next resort is the money lenders, who charge interest rates of nearly 50 per cent per annum.

Loans taken by most of the farmers who committed suicide were for basic materials like pesticides and seeds. Especially, in the case of cotton farmers who used the loans to buy expensive BT cotton seeds- a genetically modified seed that does not need as much pesticide as the normal variety. But what the farmers did not know was that these seeds are water intensive, and in most parts of Maharashtra water is scarce and rainfall irregular. Additionally very few parts of Maharashtra are irrigated.

The Ministry of Water Resources claims that ‘There are considerable areas with unutilised water resources’[4]. How these resources, and the funds allocated to the Ministry, were utilised in Maharashtra in the last year was not reported on their charts.

However, in this year’s budget the government has given a substantial grant to the Ministry for irrigation development. But the problems are deeper than just irrigation. Even if the harvest is good there is no guarantee the crops will be bought. Because of globalisation and internal government policies, the farmers in India have to compete against the subsidies offered by rich developed countries to their farmers.

Since 1994 world cotton prices have fallen by a third because of the subsidies the US offers its farmers [5]. As a result if the crop is good, in some villages there are still bales of cotton left without buyers, because selling it at low prices would not even recover the cost of production.

This malady is not limited to cotton farmers. Rahul Rao pointed out in an article in the New Internationalist, how the CAP subsidies in Europe were another cause of the troubles of the Indian farmers.

When questioned on the connection between the two he replied,” The CAP subsidies have brought down the production costs of products ranging from cereal to milk and instead of supporting the deserving small family-run farms the bulk of the support goes to large processors. These large processors then dump their products in developing countries.”

Additionally MP Sharad Joshi, President of the Farmer Co-ordination Committee, said that,” The government deliberately aims to depress agricultural prices. For example, they even import wheat at a higher price as a deliberate policy to keep the prices low for the benefit of the whole industry.” This does not seem to be benefiting the industry; in fact it seems counter-productive.

But “the farmers are not entirely blameless” said Mr Rao “they are resistant to change, some do not even have a desire to change. They look to the government for solutions.”

Professor Huw Dixon, macroeconomist, explained that in this situation there are retraining should be a priority. He said “The Indian government policy should focus on financial advice and retraining. Lending money to the farmers would just further increase their debts.”

Mr Rao also pointed out that, “The government on several occasions has not even admitted that the suicides were caused due to indebtedness. Instead they have stated several times that they are a result of rampant alcoholism amongst the farmers, who then committed suicide due to depression.”

Perhaps this is what has lead to the rapid escalation of the situation: the lack of acknowledgement on the part of the government. If they do not acknowledge the cause it would be difficult to combat it.

This lack of acknowledgement is evident in this year’s budget. Although the focus of the budget is agriculture, and the finance minister Mr Chidambaram said agriculture “must hold first charge on our resources”[6], the focus does not seem to be pointing in the right direction.
Mr Chidambaram announced plans to boost credit to farmers, and to increase fertilizer and water subsidies. But this tends to benefit the better-off, and help cripple the budget in leaner times.[7]

Additionally this was exactly what the research conducted by the TATA institute social sciences recommended the government not focus on. The research was carried out at the behest of the Mumbai High Court as an enquiry into the deaths of the farmers. The report states that the government should come up with policies that focus on the farmers rather than seed and fertiliser corporations, who enhance their profits at the cost of millions of farmers. [8]

Nevertheless, the recent budget has also mentioned training schemes for a thousand farmers but unfortunately the training is specific to rain water harvesting. The farmers need to know a lot more than just rain water harvesting. A training model that may be beneficial to farmers in India is conducted by a philanthropist Manfred Doetsch in the Philippines

The people of the Philippines are as reliant on agriculture as in India. Mr Doetsch organised a team of agricultural professionals, who educate a group of farmers on ways to optimise the use of their land. They in turn teach the others. Within the programme if the farmers require loans, they are provided at two per cent interest. But, loans are discouraged.

Mr Doetsch is extremely pleased with the success of the programme. He said “95 per cent of the loans have already been repaid, and now I can actually see the difference. When I started this programme six years ago the villagers did not have slippers, now everyone in the village can afford to buy slippers.”

Nevertheless, “the success of this model is not guaranteed in India” said Mr Rao. “In some villages the cotton farmers in India were given other options, like growing vegetables and organic farming, but they were against learning organic farming too.”

It seems as though the government and the farmers are both looking for instant cures to this problem. However, judging by how long this situation has prevailed; there is no instant cure, only long term solutions.

But that will require both the government and the farmers to actually make an effort to change: the government- their policies; the farmers- their attitude. Only then will the poor farmers like Tukaram get the much deserved respite that he and his sons so desperately want. (1509 words)