Caste still bleeds small land holders

PUNE: The failure of the monsoon to live up to its promise so far this year is giving rise to a sense of deja vu among farmers in many parts of the state, notably those in Vidarbha and Marathwada regions, which face the prospect of a fourth consecutive year of drought.
Analyses of suicides by farmers in Vidarbha in 2002 by the Gokhale institute of politics and economics (Gipe) here has revealed that "crop failure and indebtedness" were the primary causes that drove lower- and middle-caste farmers to take the extreme step.
While Yavatmal and Wardha districts accounted for 14 suicides each in 2002, Amravati saw 10 similar incidents and Nagpur reported four such deaths. The spate of farmer suicides this year, too, has occurred in the same region.
According to the study, large and medium farm owners, who mostly belonged to higher castes, committed suicide due to a variety of socio-economic reasons independent of agriculture. In the case of lower-caste farmers, however, their crop loss and indebtedness has been attributed largely to "the caste-based social isolation in rural society".
These are observations made in the study, ''Market imperfections and farmers'' distress in Maharashtra'', by scholars B.B. Mohanty and Sangeeta Shroff of Gipe''s agro-economic research centre. The study was undertaken at the instance of the Union agriculture ministry and was completed in October 2003.
According to the scholars, since agriculture in the state is mainly rain-fed, the shortfall in precipitation this year is likely to aggravate the hardships of neo-farmers, especially those from the scheduled castes with small land holdings. Both Shroff and Mohanty have blamed the social isolation of marginalised farmers and lack of proper state intervention for the acute hardships faced by them. The situation is likely to be compounded by delayed rains this year, the researchers told TNN.
"Around 66% of the farmers who committed suicide in 1997, and 35% of those in 2003 belonged to the scheduled castes. All of them were landless labourers encouraged to become farmers by the state in the recent past," Mohanty said.
However, their lack of expertise and experience in handling drought situations, and refusal of co-operation from higher strata of society, drove them to desperation, he noted.
Shroff noted that marginalised farmers, especially the neo-farmers who come from the landless Scheduled Caste community, suffer the most in such situations. "Loans to farmers linked to the size of their land holdings is faulty, because farmers with large lands are benefited, while the small farmer does not get enough to meet production costs," she pointed out.
"If, due to any reason, the small farmer cannot repay debts, the co-operative does not entertain him again, which leads to suicides," Mohanty explained. Moreover, government loans are not available to farmers who have defaulted earlier.
Shroff also pointed to government subsidies and welfare schemes being rendered ineffective due to malpractices by government officials, pesticide dealers, farmers and members of co-operatives. "Due to the government''s failure to intervene in crop markets like onion and cotton, and inefficiency in handling the sugarcane market, the state government has not only driven its coffers into deficit, but also driven farmers to suicide," she said.
Shroff and Mohanty deplored the excessive reliance on cash crops — cotton, sugarcane and onion — and said it was leading to losses to farmers and the state exchequer.