The Green Revolution of the 60s brought to the Indian Farmer prosperity. In many regions the high yielding varieties of crops were used and the result was a dramatic increase in production. One of the failures of the green revolution though was that the efforts put in were restricted to very few var5ieties of crops. The lessons learnt were not used for research in other crops and for the benefit of the farmers in all parts of the country. The liberalization policies of the government ion the early nineties open the doors of the nation for Multi-National Companies from around the world. The fragile Indian Agricultural setup that was based on monoons and a host of other conventional setup suddenly found itself exposed to never-heard-of revolutionary technologies and agricultural methodologies.
The farmer was shown the lucrative results of the new seeds and the new methods and every help was given to him to shift from the conventional seeds and techniques to the new revolutionary genetically modified varieties. Little did they know that they were entering a vicious circle. Within a few years, the conventional seeds were lost. The support that flowed freely in the beginning dried up. And the promising seeds proved to be not so promising.
On the other front, the nation was rapidly globalisation. Putting aside the concerns and the needs of the agrarian society the governments were busy helping set up modern industries. The help from the banks and trhe government that helped the farmer during crisis started changing course. And the nation watched the rising Indian Industry. While all of this happened, the Indian farmer was left with fewer choices to survive with dignity. This triggered a chain of suicides throughout the nation. For the benefit of our readers we will try to highlight the major reasons for the increase in suicides. A combinations of all these factors is destroying the Indian small farm household.
Lack of Tenancy Reforms
Cash Crops
Indebtedness
High Water Stress
Extremely high cultivation costs.
Governments Cheat on Poll Promises
EU and American Cotton Subsidies
Credit Expansion
Incomes have collapsed
Seeds companies are running riots
Drop in Total Development Expenditure
Lack of Tenancy Reforms
Another problem is the rack renting of tenants. In the Andhra Pradesh suicides, you will find that many of those (in some regions) who have committed suicide were actually tenant farmers. Out of the 28 bags of paddy they harvested, they parted with 25 bags as the tenancy or lease rate. If there is a cyclone or damage or anything else, incidentally, the reparations and the compensation go to the absentee landlords. We have no tenancy reforms. We cannot do land reforms in 60 years across this country! Except in three states.
Cash Crops
The states that show the greatest number of farm suicides fall in the Cash Crop growing region. The prices of these are highly dependant on the global market. The government did not and has not taken appropriate steps to safeguard the farmer from the affects of price rigging by the developed nations and the rich corporate.
In Vidharbha, it is too risky to adopt expensive technologies. Small farmers who take loans for cultivation have no capacity to meet the calamity of crop failure. Traditional crops like jowar should again be revived. The funds allotted under the Prime Minister's package for seed replacement should be used to promote jowar, pulses and legumes. Also, organic farming and crop-livestock integration should be promoted on both ecological and economic grounds. Vidharbha can be declared as the Organic Farming Zone of Maharashtra, so that its oranges, jowar, cotton and other crops become known as organic products and thereby gain in market value.” — MS Swaminathan Chairman, National Commission on Farmers
Indebtedness
The highest number of indebted households in the country is in Andhra Pradesh which is at 82 per cent, Kerala has 64 per cent and Karnataka has 62 per cent of all farm households in debt. The list is endless. You can see how the suicide map matches that of indebtedness which is one of the important single major causes.
The NSSO’s 59th round tells us that while 26 per cent of farm households were in debt in 1991, that figure went up to over 48 per cent – almost double by 2003.
High Water Stress
The new varieties of seeds that are being supplied to the farmer are not accustomed to the Indian conditions. The promised performance is in ideal conditions which includes irrigated land. In our nation where cultivation is still dependant on monsoons there is never enough water. Added to this fact is the much higher consumption of water by the gm seeds.
Extremely high cultivation costs.
Input costs have gone up to a point where there is no return. This applies specially to the cash crops. Take the case of di-ammonia phosphate (DAP). One bag of DAP cost Rs.120 in 1991. It costs four times as much now. Seeds were available at Rs.7 a kilogram of local variety. It was Rs.1800 for the BT cotton seed (per 450 gram packet) in 2004 before the Andhra Pradesh Government took Monsanto to court. It got the price dropped down to Rs.725.
Governments Cheat on Poll Promises
Coming back to Vidharbha, Government of Maharashtra made a promise of Rs. 2700 rupees, but they lowered it by Rs. 500. With that, it removed Rs. 1200 crores from the farmers. After removing Rs. 1200 crores from the farmers, the Chief Minister announced a package of Rs. 1,075 crores. A package of Rs. 1,075 crore is being given to people from whom you have taken away Rs. 1200 crore!
EU and American Cotton Subsidies
The US, the European Union are drowning their cotton growers in subsidies. Cotton growers of the US are not small farmers, they are corporations. How many cotton growers do we have in Maharashtra? It is in millions. How many cotton growers are there in US? It is 20,000. When we removed Rs. 1200 crore from our farmers, how much did the US give to its corporations?
On a crop value of 3.9 billion dollars, the United States gave its cotton growers a subsidy of 4.7 billion dollars. It destroyed the bottom of the international cotton market. The cotton price at the New York exchange ruled at 90 to 100 cents in 1994-95 fell to around 40 cents and from that date suicides began all over the world as prices crashed and farmers ran up horrible losses.
In Burkina Faso, hundreds of cotton farmers killed themselves. In July 2003, the Presidents of Burkina Faso and Mali wrote an article in New York Times, “Your Farm Subsidies are Strangling Us”.
We were not able to take action against such subsidies. While our duties on cotton are 10 per cent, if one is a Mumbai textile magnate, then he/she do not pay even that ten per cent. They get it waived in lieu of export of garments. Incidentally, if one is a Mumbai textile magnate, he/she can even get the cotton free because private corporations dumping cotton in India would give them six months’ credit. In six months credit, they can run the entire cycle from cotton to cotton garment. All these games are played around the lives of millions of people.
Credit Expansion
The indebtedness of Indian peasants has. We have been told repeatedly that there is a massive credit expansion and indeed there is but it is not going to the farmer. What has happened to the credit expansion? How do you expand credit when you have closed 3,500 banks in the rural areas? Rural areas have witnessed the closure of over 3,000 banks between 1993 and 2002. And more since then. Private banks are only now beginning to come in. It was only the nationalized banks which worked in the rural areas. There expansion of food production associated with the ‘Green Revolution’ would actually not have taken place without the banks being there and providing the credit for the farmer to do that. Banks have systemically withdrawn from credit and bank branches have closed down in thousands.
There has been a diversion of credit to the upper middle classes, the consumption of all of us in the cities indeed. The so-called Gramina Banks are playing with tens of crores of rupees in the Mumbai Stock Exchange! The undermining and re-defining of what we call priority sector lending has a lot to do with it. We redefine it. Under agricultural loan, you can buy a Qualis or Tavera or Scorpio or other luxury vehicle -- as an agricultural loan!. It is also very important in the whole crisis.
Incomes have collapsed
Look at income. Income collapse was a major part of the crisis. In several regions, farm incomes have simply collapsed. The national average monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) of the Indian farm household is Rs. 503. It is pretty close to the below poverty figure of Rs. 425 or so of rural India. Six States on an average have been below the poverty line It is below Rs. 425 figure. Five or six States exist in the country like that.
There are many households existing on a monthly per capita expenditure of Rs. 225. This is according to the National Sample Survey Organisation. The per capita monthly expenditure is Rs. 225 which translates into Rs. 8 a day. In that, you are going to manage your food, clothing, footwear, education, health and transport. What does it leave for any kind of life? You are always in debt. 55 per cent has gone to food, 18 per cent to fuel, footwear and clothing. In all these areas, you will find a very high proportion of school and college dropouts. People with B.Sc. degrees have dropped out to work as farm labourers on the family farm in order to get it somehow going, while our Agricultural Universities have simply taken up the job of doing research for other parties like private corporations but not for our farmers any more.
Seeds companies are running riots
In 1998, the World Bank’s structural adjustment policies forced India to open its seed sector to global agribusinesses such as Monsanto, Cargill, and Syngenta. As a result of this adjustment, traditional farm saved seeds have been replaced with g
enetically engineered seeds which are non-renewable, thus requiring repurchase for each growing season. What was once a self-renewing resource and gift from the Earth has now become a corporate commodity and a costly investment which farmers must make every season. In most cases this has lead to poverty and severe indebtedness. In futile attempts to relieve themselves of debt, some farmers have even sold their own organs. When these attempts fail to rectify their financial situations, many farmers find no way out but to take their own lives.
We have deregulated agriculture to an extent where the quality of seed has now been graded much lower. In the sense, when you bought a bag of seed, on the back of seed, it will be stamped – 85 per cent germination rate guaranteed. That is now 60 per cent. It means if a village buys 10,000 bags of seed, they are paying for 10,000 bags, but they are getting 6,000 bags because we have lowered the standards through MOUs with companies. The seed industry, as I said earlier, is bigger than software exports. The agricultural universities have collapsed. The extension machinery, as the Government of India itself says, is in a state of complete disrepair.
Drop in Total Development Expenditure
Foremost agricultural economist, Dr. Utsa Patnaik shows us that while total development expenditure as a share of GDP was fourteen and a half per cent in 1989-90, it was 5.9 per cent by 2005. That is a collapse of Rs.30,000 crore per year or an income loss of Rs.120,000 crore.