Potato Fields Turned Death-meadows for Bengal Farmers

By Pijush Banerjee

THE insecticide was there in the house to prevent infection of aphids on mustard seeds. But Gudu Murmu had no intention whatever of spraying it on the mustard seeds. The marginal farmer from Bhatar poured it into his own throat.

The cost of the insecticide bought from a local fertiliser shop is still due to be paid. The onus is now on Ram Murmu to repay his father’s debt.

100 grams of the pesticide costs Rs 180. Mustard aphids, a type of little bug, infest the mustard seeds. The cost of the insecticide has now got added to the liabilities to the fertiliser shop incurred for the potato cultivation.

Even the poison consumed by farmers to commit suicide is bought in debt. The administration of the Mamata Banerjee government has suggested such distressed farmers to store 150 sacks of rice in their hamlets.

Ram Murmu, the son of the farmer who committed suicide was expressing his anguish, “Is the government out of its heads? We would have no troubles whatsoever if we could have had 150 sacks of rice in our house.”

Two sons of Swapan Kundu had to relocate to Chandigarh from Khanakul to work for a jeweler. Daily hard work from 10 am to 9 pm earns them a monthly salary of Rs 2000, with the owner bearing their food and lodging expenses.

Swapan Kundu, a potato farmer from Khanakul, committed suicide after failing to cope up with distressed selling.

After enquiring about his death, the Mamata Banerjee government had inferred that his sons are ‘well-to-do’. Soumen Kundu, the elder son, after returning to his village on learning his father’s suicide commented, “If the family is well-to-do, who on earth moves to Chandigarh for a meager Rs 2000 monthly salary? I am only 25, and my father was 55 years old. You must understand that why I had to leave my family and state at this age.” But who is there to understand the agony of the son of a farmer who has committed suicide?

Swapan Kundu’s wife has to take insulin twice a day. With liabilities worth Rs 1,18,000, her sons are now striving to obtain the life-saving drug to keep their mother alive.

Starting from March 4, the harvesting season for potatoes, 16 farmers have taken recourse to suicide in 20 days. The spate of fatal suicides was mainly concentrated in high yielding potato production areas of Hooghly and Burdwan, a few from Howrah, Birbhum and West Midnapore. What started as distress sale has reached to the proportion of no sale at all within 15 days, driving thousands of farmers into unprecedented crisis.

Farmers would commit suicides on account of distress selling, in a state where ‘Mati Utsab’ (soil festival) is annually organised at the whim of the chief minister! This year, the government has also organised the ‘Matitirtha Utsab’ after the ‘Mati Utsab’. In such a festive springtime, farmers are getting killed due to distressed selling, and being unable to repay debts.

So, the government has discovered that Gudu Murmu, the marginal farmer from Bhatar, had no debts. Actually, a marginal farmer like him is not even eligible to take loan. He has cultivated on a contract basis in just 17 katha land. ‘Showing’ 150 sacks of rice in his house, the government has concluded that he was a habitual drinker of country liquor. No representative of the government has as yet reached even the villages where farmers have committed suicides.

Gudu Murmu had taken two bighas of land on lease this year for potato cultivation. The contract had stated that both the landlord and the farmer had to equally bear the expenses of cultivation.  And, they would also equally share the profits on selling the yield. But, the price of the potatoes is much below than the expenses of farming. Gudu Murmu could not gather the courage of collecting the potatoes from the field. And, he chose to drink insecticide before doing that.

What about the accounts of the 150 sacks in his house?

“Are these mine? These belong to the land-owner. And only 37 sacks. They are kept in the house as we could not get enough prices for them. If these are sold, half of the earnings are to be given to him. This year the price of rice is on the ebb. So those could not be sold. My father had thought that the potato cultivation could compensate for the losses of paddy cultivation. He himself is now gone.” Ram Murmu was replying to the shameless lies of the government.

The voices of the people do not seem to reach the 14th floor of the Nabanna. If it would have, the government could have easily taken initiatives to stop this endless death march. A potato farmer had written to the chief minister on March 3 fearing imminent danger. The letter had directly reached the resident in the 14th floor of the Nabanna.

Now the words of the letter have made a cruel return to the soil. What were the anxieties written in the letter of a potato farmer from Udaynarayanpur?

 “… Therefore madam, I am pleading to you to immediately take necessary actions to save us from the lurking obvious death.” This was how Dipak Santra concluded his letter. This potato farmer who wrote from a Goja village from Udaynarayanpur also stated that, “Taking debts, I have cultivated potatoes in my own two bighas, and in 3½ bighas shared land. Now, potatoes do not have a profitable price, and no one is willing to buy potatoes. We cannot find a way out from this devastatingly frustrating crisis. The potatoes can also not be left in the field owing to proliferation of potato aphids. Hundreds and hundreds of farmers are in the similar predicament as me.”

Those who had pleaded to the chief minister on March 3 would have also started to join the death march by now.

Cultivation of potatoes in a bigha had cost approximately Rs 17,000 this year. One bigha can yield at a maximum, 80 packets of potatoes. Potatoes are being sold at Rs 100 per packet. So, the earnings of a farmer per bigha are Rs 8000. This implies that the net loss is Rs 9000 per bigha. “The cost of Rs 17,000 is only the cost of cultivating. If we consider the expenses of collecting, the cost would rise even higher. Such is the dire situation.”

The price of potatoes is Rs 100 per packet. And, what about paddy?

Distressed potato seller Subal Bairagi informed that the price of rice is Rs 580 per sack (of 60 kilograms). It implies that one quintal rice costs only Rs 966! It is way below the minimum support price. The government has fixed Rs 1360 per quintal of rice as the minimum support price. The price in Bhatar is Rs 394 less than the MSP! The farmers who did not get prices for their paddy throughout the winter had hit the streets. Then also, the government did not show any initiative to curb distress selling. When did the government start buying rice? When, the distress selling by the farmers was over. Then, the government had opened Kishan mandis to buy rice from the farmers. The result, the middlemen bought rice at Rs 1000 per quintal from the farmers and sold a portion of that at Rs 1375 per quintal to the government. So, the farmers were kept at bay. This time, the government has decided to buy only 50,000 tons of potatoes at Rs 5.30 directly from the farmers. The farmers could not conceal their laughter at such a diktat even in such a period of agony and distress. “We saw enough of the direct buying of rice. Now, it’s the turn of potatoes. Go and see that they are already being bought from some businessmen”, sarcastically commented Subal Bairagi, the potato farmer from Bhatar.

The relatives of farmers whose family members have committed suicides are reluctant to go to the fields. “I have no intent of collecting the potatoes from the field. Let it remain as it is. Rs 2000 additional cost has to be incurred for the labour to collect those from the field. Even that price would not be met up. Then even we would not be left with any way-out, apart from drinking poison”, Ram Murmu expressed his frustration and anguish. So, the potatoes are heaped in the fields of rural Bengal. There is none to buy those. The farmers have lost all zeal to sell them. The fields of Bengal are expressing a silent sarcasm to the festive mood of the chief minister.

Last year, the chief minister was the prime speaker in all the meetings of the Task Force.  The idea of curbing potatoes to be sent to other states was devised by her. She was the one who had regulated the price of the potatoes in the open market. Why is she absent this time around?

Instead of lowering the price in the open market, Mamata Banerjee had increased the price of potatoes last time. But by banning potatoes from being sent to neighbouring states, she had created a much larger danger. The government had defied all protests which said that such a sanction is unconstitutional in a federal structure.

Though the government has relaxed its sanctions under pressure, yet its after-effect is far from being over. There is no demand of potatoes in Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Assam and Odisha. Being alarmed by the whimsical attitude of the West Bengal government, those state governments have provided subsidies to its farmers for fertilisers and potato seed, and urged them to produce potatoes. Hence, there is none to buy potatoes from the fields of farmers of Bengal, who have produced greater yield than the last year.

Mamata Banerjee would complete her four years of being sworn in as the chief minister in two months. In 2011, farmers had set their jute ablaze in the field, not getting the worth of their yield. Since then, there has been no agricultural season where the farmers have got fair prices for their crops. Rice, jute or potato – no crop had a fair price in the market. On the other hand, the expenses of cultivation have increased in geometric proportions. While the central government has increased the price of the fertilisers, the Mamata Banerjee government has increased the price of electricity.

The fields of Bengal are now the death-trap for the farmers. The farmers of Bengal are now in a similar state as the cotton farmers of Vidarbha.

Farmers’ Suicides in West Bengal: A Preliminary Analysis

By Subhanil Chowdhury, Newsclick, March 6, 2012

Over the last 15 years more than 2 lakh farmers have committed suicide in the country due to debt related problem and an acute agrarian crisis.

This phenomenon was outside the lived experience of the people of West Bengal and came only as news from distant places. But with the Trinamool Congress led government coming to power in West Bengal, a significant change has happened in West Bengal countryside, where the phenomenon of farmer suicides have now become a part of rural life in the state. In the last 8 months 34 farmers have committed suicide in the state due to debt related problems and non-remunerative prices of the crop. The question is what explains this sudden acute problem of farmers in the state. In order to comprehend the problem, it is important to understand the overall national context of the agrarian situation in the country. Therefore, we start with a discussion on this aspect before going into the particularities of West Bengal. 

Neo-liberalism and Agrarian Crisis in India

Agriculture in India has been the worst sufferer in the aftermath of pursuing neo-liberal policies. With the new policy regime imposed on the people in 1991, the government reduced its role in the agriculture sector. This was done in myriad ways. Firstly, the total gross capital formation in agriculture as a proportion of total gross capital formation in the country has declined. This ratio was 15.4% in 1980-81, subsequently declined to 9.9% in 1990-91 and declined to 7.7% in 2009-10. This essentially shows that there has been a sharp decline in investment in agriculture. This sharp decline in agricultural investment on the other hand is led by a decline in public sector investment in agriculture. If we look at public gross capital formation in agriculture as a proportion of total gross capital formation in the economy, then it has declined from 17.7% in 1980-81 to 7.1% in 1990-91 and further declined to 5.9% in 2008-09. This decline in public investment in agriculture is also manifested from the fact that out of the total plan outlay only 4.9% was allocated for agriculture and allied sector in the IX Plan, which declined to 3.9% in the X plan and further reduced to 3.7% in the XI plan.[1] Such an all-round decline in public investment in agriculture was not matched by commensurate increase in private investment resulting in an overall decline in agricultural investment in the country. 

With such decline in agricultural investment, the growth rate of production in agriculture is bound to take a hit. The following table shows the growth rate of agriculture in the various plan periods in the country.

Table 1: Growth rate of agriculture in various plan periods

Plan Period	Growth Rate
8th Plan (1992-97)	4.69
9th Plan (1997-2002)	2.06
10th Plan (2002-07)	2.2
11th Plan (2007-12)	3.0

Source: Planning Commission

Note: The growth rate for the 11th Plan is the expected growth rate

This slowdown in growth rate of agriculture has resulted in a situation where the share of this sector in the GDP was only 14.6% in 2009-10.[2] However, this sector employs 67.6% of the labour force in rural areas and 7.5% in urban areas in 2009-10.[3] This essentially means that even with a high growth rate of GDP and slowdown in agriculture, the growth process has failed to absorb labour in the non-agricultural sector. Therefore the agriculture sector continues to be a repository of low income and poverty. 

While there has been a substantial slowdown in agricultural production in the country, the central government has liberalized agricultural trade by cutting down tariffs on agricultural commodities and allowing imports of agricultural products. This has resulted in a situation in which the farmers of India have been exposed to the price volatility of the global commodity market. This is more so in the case of cash crops. In fact, a major proportion of farmers who have committed suicide in Kerala or Maharashtra are cash crop farmers cultivating vanilla, coffee etc in the case of Kerala and mostly cotton in the case of Maharashtra. With a drastic fall in the global prices of these commodities in the beginning of 2000s, the return on farming for these sections of the farmers collapsed driving many of them into suicide. If these farmers were not exposed to the global price movements then a significant number of farmers would not have been pushed towards suicide. 

On the other hand, there has been a substantial reduction in subsidies provided to the agriculture sector, in particular the subsidies for fertilizers have been reduced drastically. In 2009-10, Rs 61264.29 crore was provided as fertilizer subsidy. However, in 2011-12, only Rs 49997.67 crore is being provided.[4] Moreover, prices of certain fertilizers have been decontrolled, which creates another upward pressure on the prices of this essential agricultural input. Additionally, the government has reduced agricultural extension services, which again adversely affects the farmers.  

All this has resulted in an increase in cost of cultivation. The real cost of production for rice and wheat are shown in the following table 

Table 2: Growth Rate of Real Cost of Production for Rice and Wheat

Year	Rice	Wheat
1981-82 to 1992-93	-0.13	-1.96
1994-95 to 2006-07	1.92	1.96

Source: Agricultural Price Policy, Farm Profitability and Food Security: An Analysis of Rice and Wheat, S Mahendra Dev, _ Chandrasekhara Rao, Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP)

Note: Cost is calculated as Cost of Production per Quintal of rice/wheat 

From the above it is clear that with the advent of the policies of liberalization, the cost of production for the two major crops in India has increased. This increase in cost of production is primarily because of an increase in input prices. According to the reply of the government to a question posed in Lok Sabha on 23-08-2011,

“The prices of major agricultural inputs and implements during 2005-06 to 2011-12 (till July, 2011) have increased by 22.2% for fertilizers, 10.7% for pesticides, 32.0% for diesel, 29.8% for tractors and 32.3% for pumps & assembly in terms of Wholesale Price Index (WPI). As per the available data, the prices of seeds of various crops have increased from about 13.5% to 55.5% during 2005-06 to 2010-11.”[5] 

This massive increase in the prices of inputs is a direct result of the policies pursued by the central government entailing a cut back on crucial subsidies and deregulating prices of inputs like fertilizers. On the face of such an increase in cost of cultivation, the only way to keep farming viable is to increase the Minimum Support Price (MSP). But the MSP is given for a selected number of commodities and not all commodities. Therefore, such an all-round increase in the input costs of cultivation is bound to adversely affect the lives and livelihoods of millions of farmers in the country.  

It is in this backdrop that the agriculture sector in West Bengal is operating. However, it must be noted that while all the above mentioned factors were operating in India, West Bengal did not witness any farmer suicide during the period when thousands of farmers have committed suicide in the country. The crucial issue that needs to be analysed is what has changed in the last 7-8 months that farmers are suddenly committing suicide in large numbers in the state. We now turn to discuss the case of West Bengal in greater details. 

Agrarian Situation in West Bengal

Since October 2011, 34 farmers have committed suicide in the state of West Bengal. Most of these 34 farmers are poor or marginal peasants and some of them are poor agricultural labourers. Most of these farmers are paddy and potato farmers who took loans to cultivate their land. But they did not get any remunerative price for the product which left them indebted without any prospect of repaying these loans. Driven to desperation and social embarrassment, they took their own lives.  

Although the pattern of the farmer suicides in West Bengal, in terms of indebtedness and non-remunerative prices generally follow the pattern of such suicides in other states, there is a crucial difference. This difference lies in the fact that most of these farmers are food crop farmers like rice and potato. Being food crop farmers, they are largely insulated from the volatility of global commodity prices, which spelt doom for thousands of cotton or coffee growing farmers in the country. Secondly, for paddy growers, the central government has instituted the MSP, which theoretically at least is supposed to not only cover the cost of production but also give some profit margin to the farmers. However, the fact that the paddy growing farmers are committing suicide in the state points towards an acute governmental and policy failure. As far as the potato farmers are concerned, a bumper crop of potato has the potential of crashing the market price. But government intervention in the past did not allow such a situation to arise. The fact that potato growing farmers are committing suicide points again towards governmental and policy failure to deal with the eventuality of any such crash in prices. 

The Issue of MSP

As has been the case in rest of the country, the cost of cultivation of paddy has increased in West Bengal too. In the year 2007-08, the total cost of cultivation of paddy per hectare of land was Rs 28141 which increased to Rs 33046 in 2008-09. The CACP projects that for the year 2011-12, the cost of cultivation of paddy per hectare has increased to Rs 38868.[6] Therefore according to the data of the competent authority itself, the cost of cultivation of paddy will witness a substantial increase in West Bengal. If we convert this cost in per quintal terms, then for the year 2011-12, the figure comes to Rs 896 per quintal of paddy.[7] Given these facts, there are some glaring problems with the way in which the problem of procurement of rice and paying MSP has been done in the state.

Let us first look at the issue of MSP. Last year the MSP announced by the Central Government for a quintal of rice was Rs 1050. The erstwhile Left Front government announced a bonus of Rs 50 per quintal so that the farmers received Rs 1100 per quintal of rice. This year the Central Government has announced an MSP of Rs 1080 per quintal. But the current TMC-led government has not announced any bonus for the farmers. As a result, the farmers are getting a price which is lower than last year’s. Therefore, prima facie, the farmers are worse off than last year in terms of prices, while their cost of cultivation has increased. This is a perfect recipe for a debt problem in the agrarian sector of any economy.  

The problem however does not end with a lower effective MSP for the farmers. The farmers will get the MSP only when the government procures from them. In this regard, the record of the current government has been abysmal. The state government till 20^th January 2011, has procured 2.11 lakh metric tonnes of rice and 57355 tonnes of paddy. Last year, the total procurement by the state government was 4.55 lakh tonnes of rice and 11.76 lakh tonnes of paddy, whereby the total procurement from the state was at 13.10 lakh tonnes of rice.[8] It is obvious that compared to last year, the procurement drive of the current government has been a total failure. From certain quarters of the government, it is being propagated that the procurement has fallen because the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has procured less. This is nothing but a white lie. In the current year the FCI has procured 71996 metric tonnes of rice, while last year it had procured only 67039 metric tonnes of rice.[9] Therefore, the FCI has actually procured more rice this year; it is because of the complete failure on the part of the government that the procurement has been abysmal this year.  

It is absolutely not the case that the decline in the procurement of the government is because of a fall in the production of paddy/rice. Rather, the problem is that this year there is a bumper harvest of paddy. On the face of such huge production, the necessity of the government to buy from the farmers becomes even more since in the absence of governmental intervention, the price of paddy may collapse in the open market leading to acute distress of the farmers. But, this is where the government has completely failed by not procuring enough from the farmers. What has happened is that the government has asked certain rice mills to procure from the farmers. But these rice mills are dilly-dallying on making payments to them. In certain cases they have made payments in cheque, which has bounced. With surplus grain lying in the godown, the farmers have been forced to go for distress sale, leading to a fall in their prices and hence foreclosing the possibility of earning any return on the farmers’ investment in the crop. Some farmers with the possibility of a price crash are unable to sell their crops. While for others, with the distress sale phenomenon, they are being paid less than the MSP by the rice mills. In this situation, it is but obvious that the farmers are unable to meet their debt obligations and other expenses leading to a desperate step like suicide. 

This policy of relying on the rice mills only to procure from the farmers is in sharp contrast with the procurement policy of the Left Front government, where the government used to involve all government and semi-government agencies, rural cooperatives and the Self Help Groups to procure paddy from the farmers. This had a twin advantage. Firstly, with such decentralized procurement policy, the farmers did not have to transport their grains to long distances to sell them to the rice mills. Secondly, the social intimacy of the Self Help Groups, panchayats with the farmers in the villages enabled the government to understand the situation better. This entire approach of decentralized procurement has been done away with. Moreover, the TMC led government has made the panchayats defunct and are trying to rely on the bureaucracy for policy implementation in the villages. This has ensured that elected representatives of the people are bypassed and the bureaucracy takes over in crucial matters related to the villages, who are distant from the actual problems on the ground.  

The plight of the potato and jute farmers follows a similar story. The MSP for jute was set at Rs 1675 per quintal. While the Chief Minister wrote to the central government to increase this by Rs 400, she took no initiative to ensure that the Jute Corporation of India sets up procurement centres in the state to buy jute from the farmers. The central government did not respond to her demand and JCI did not open up procurement centres, as a result the farmers were forced to sell their crops under distress and in the process ended up making huge debts from local money lenders and banks. The plight of the potato farmers followed a similar story. With bumper harvest of potato and the state government doing nothing to resist price crash, the price of potato has decreased to 20 paisa per Kg because of which the farmers are getting zero return on their investment. 

Dismal Performance in NREGA

On the face of such problem of farmers and agricultural labourer in the state, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme would have provided some relief to the rural population. However, in this regard too, the government has been an utter failure. In the current financial year (2011-12) upto the month of December, 438.41 lakh mandays of employment have been generated, while Rs 125173.49 lakh being the total expenditure. During the same period last year (2010-11), 910.71 lakh mandays of employment was generated with a total expenditure of Rs 153816.63 lakh. On an average only 14.4 days of employment has been provided in West Bengal till date this year, while the provision is for 100 days. This is the second lowest in the country. Only Arunachal Pradesh has generated less number of average days of employment under NREGA.[10] In other words, compared to the performance of NREGA under the Left Front government, the TMC-led government has performed dismally. This has prompted the Minister of Rural Development of Government of India to write a letter to the West Bengal government pointing out that the performance of the state has been dismal under NREGA.

Political Economy of the Government’s Role in the Agrarian Problem

At this point a legitimate question can be asked as to why the government did not take any initiative to provide relief to the farmers and has gone on a denial mode saying that there has been no farmer suicide in West Bengal. In order to understand the problem one needs to look at the social class basis of the Trinamool Congress. In 2001, when the Left Front came to power the Trinamool had won 45.7% of the votes of the rich classes in West Bengal.[11] The very high vote share of the rich for the TMC at a time when the Left Front was winning elections after elections shows that the rich always supported the TMC and this is their core mass base. It is undoubtedly the case that the TMC managed to win a large chunk of the vote of the poor and lower income category (48%) in 2011 elections when it won the elections. But it has also increased its vote share to 49% amongst the rich.[12] As the interests of the rich and the poor in most of the cases are contradictory, it is impossible to keep the vote share of both the classes intact. But, the fact that the rich consolidated their support in favour of the TMC at a time when the electoral fortunes of TMC were grim shows that for the TMC, the rich class is a dependent ally. It is for this reason, that while the TMC supremo indulges in a lot of left rhetoric, when it comes to reality, the government is failing to take care of the problem of the looming agrarian crisis.  

This alliance between the rich and TMC is showing its most ugly face in the rural areas. Ever since the election results have been announced on 13th May, there have been systematic attacks on the bargadars (share-croppers) and marginal farmers in the state. The land of the tillers earned through decades of struggle has been re-captured in many places by the erstwhile landowners. According to a conservative estimate of the Kishan Sabha, over the last two and half months, land of 527 farmers amounting to 1000 acres of riot land has been snatched away. Additionally, 4700 patta-owners have been evicted from 2700 acres of land, 3710 bargadars have been evicted from 1587 acres of land while 14025 persons have been evicted from legally acquired land. In fact the police resorted to firing when farmers were resisting forceful eviction from their land at Haroa in North 24 Parganas district. The fact that the landlord and rich peasant classes in rural West Bengal could mount an attack on the peasantry to reverse the gains of land reform after the TMC came to power shows that this class feels that their time to try and recapture lost ground has come with the coming to power of the TMC government. In essence then the rural rich feel that the government will provide protection to them. 

The attempt of the government to paralyze the panchayati raj institutions of the state, which were the prime democratic institutions in rural West Bengal is yet another example of how the government is trying to protect the interests of the rich and the powerful. Through the panchayats, democracy and empowerment was ensured for the rural masses. But now this institution is under attack. The TMC-led government has decided that they will bypass these democratic institutions and undertake rural development by bureaucratic means through the office of the BDO. This is however only the tip of the iceberg. The real reason lies in the fact that the Trinamool Congress wants to do away with the functioning of the panchayats in the state. The Chief Minister had said on record that she wants ‘non-political’ elections to the panchayats, which is essentially a euphemism for robbing the panchayats of its democratic vitality.  

The non-functioning and the denial of the government of the phenomenon of farmer suicides stems from the fact the core support base of the TMC has not been affected. It can be however argued that the TMC came to power after mobilizing people on peasant issues. So it is wrong to say that its core base is not affected. While it is true that the issues of Singur and Nandigram did play a part in the defeat of the Left Front, it is also the case that the TMC-led government till date has not announced a single policy which will benefit the farmers. The return of land in Singur will benefit a small number of farmers who will perhaps get back the land after long legal battles. But the farmers of West Bengal have gained nothing from the government in terms of any policy announcement in favour of them. Rather, the response of the government has been a denial of any problem in the agrarian sector. On the other hand, the CM has been busy with summit with the industrialists, beautification project of the riverside in Kolkata, beach festival at Digha etc. But she has not visited a single village where farmers are committing suicide. This clearly shows that the CM is happy to realize the aspirations of the middle and rich classes but not the poor. 

The total apathy shown by the government towards the plight of the farmers is only intensifying the crisis. In this situation, the only way forward is to organize the farmers and fight for their rights. Such mobilizations are happening on the ground. On 4^th January, West Bengal witnessed a historic strike of the farmers against the anti-farmer policies of the central and state governments. The entire countryside came to a standstill with the farmers instead of tilling their fields organized pickets, processions and protest actions. More such actions are the call of the day. Instead of committing suicide, the farmers need to mobilize as a collective against the government. In this struggle, the solidarity of all of us is extremely important. The farmers should not feel alone and despondent. The democratic people of the state stand in solidarity with them in this struggle.

---

[1]All data in this paragraph is quoted from Agricultural Statistics at a Glance and Economic Survey, various issues

[2] Agricultural Statistics at a Glance

[3]“ Employment in India: What Does the Latest Data Show?”, Subhanil Chowdhury, Economic and Political Weekly, August 6, 2011

[4] Budget Document

[5]Answer to question no. 286, Lok Sabha, 23-08-2011

[6] CACP Report on Price Policy for Kharif Crops, 2011-12

[7] Same as above

[8] Food Corporation of India website

[9]Same as above

[10] All data are from www.nrega.nic.in

[11] Making and Unmaking of Trinamul Congress, Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya, Economic and Political Weekly, April 3-10, 2004

[12] Fifteenth Assembly Elections in West Bengal, Economic and Political Weekly, June 18, 2011

http://newsclick.in/india/farmers%E2%80%99-suicides-west-bengal-preliminary-analysis

Unabated Farmer Suicides Point to a Looming Agrarian Crisis

By Sheikh Saidul Haque 

BEFORE going into details about the present agrarian crisis in West Bengal that is leading to a number of farmers committing suicide in the last few months, let us look, in a nutshell, at the condition of the agriculture sector in our country. This sector is in a state of widespread and deep rooted crisis. Its share in GDP has come down over the years. The agriculture sector, which contributes 17 per cent to nation’s GDP and employs around 60 percent of the population, grew by just 0.2 per cent in 2009-10 fiscal. The sector has suffered a serious setback in the last two decades, particularly from 1991 onwards when the neo-liberal policies were adopted and WTO regime started operating. 

The agriculture sector has witnessed growth rate of only 2 per cent per annum during Ninth Plan period and about 2.3 per cent during the Tenth Plan against a target of 4 per cent. In the first few years of the current Eleventh Plan period, the average growth was 2.2 per cent, which is much below the expected rate.  In fact, the average economic growth during the last four years ranged between 7 per cent to 9 per cent per annum, but there is hardly 2 to 2.2 per cent growth in the agriculture sector during this period. 

PLIGHT OF FARMERS

Farming is no longer a preferred profession in India, especially among the new generation, due to a variety of reasons like the high degree of uncertainty in income; higher input costs and lower returns; high dependence on monsoon along with low irrigation; limited access to affordable credit; low productivity due to outdated techniques etc.  Many times the farmers are forced to resort to distress sales at much below the minimum support prices. To add to these are the effects of the policies adopted by the central government in encouraging export oriented agriculture, corporate-led contract farming and forward trading of agricultural products. According to the findings of NSSO 59th round survey, an estimated 27 per cent of farmers did not like farming because it was not profitable. In all, 40 per cent felt that, given a choice, they would take up some other career. Out of 89.35 million farmer households, 43.42 million (48.6 per cent) were reported to be indebted. 

The farmers are not getting remunerative price for their produce. The prices of paddy, potato, jute, cotton and many other agricultural products have fallen to a large extent. Even the farmers are compelled to sell their produce at rates that are much below the support price. Almost 2.5 lakh farmers have committed suicide all over the country in last few years. Out of 28 states, farmer suicides are going on unabated in 15 states. It is so increasing that two farmers commit suicide every 6 hours in any part of the country, i.e. 3 to 4 in a day. 

The highest number of farmer suicides occurred in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. In the last one year around 700 farmers committed suicide in the region. Around 90 farmers committed suicide in the last two months in Andhra Pradesh. In Karnataka, 956 farmers committed suicide  in the last three years. In Mandya district of the state alone, during the last few months 11 silk farmers committed suicide because of fall in the price of raw silk .So also the case with the Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. In Hoshangabad district of Madhya Pradesh, many soybean farmers have committed suicide. Even in Kerala, in the last six months 8 farmers have committed suicide in in Wyanad district. The former LDF government had given special support price and incentives on agricultural produce bringing down the suicides in the state. But the present UDF government has not paid any special attention to the miserable plight facing the farmers that is mainly caused by the Free Trade Agreement policy adopted by the union government. The UPA government has announced special packages for Vidarbha and Bundelkand regions, but that has had little impact on the ground. 

WEST BENGAL SCENARIO

The state of West Bengal had been immune to such cases of farmer suicides during the last 34 years when Left Front government was in place. That government stood by the side of the farmers and took all measures to extend support through higher MSP, providing loans etc. But with the change of government in the state, these are being withdrawn throwing the farmers into a miserable condition. Their plight is deplorable as they resort to distress sales – may it be paddy, potato or jute. While the input cost of seeds, fertiliser, pesticides and equipment have shot up substantially, farmers are not even being paid the minimum support price. Farmers across the state are being forced to sell their produce in distress sales. This present crisis has been caused because of the wrong policies adopted by the present state government and its careless attitude to farmers. This can be seen in regard to procurement of paddy. The state government owned marketing federations like BENFED, CONFED and ECSC (Essential Commodity Supply Corporation) are not purchasing paddy to the desired levels. As against their target of procuring 9 lakh tonnes, so far they have procured only 50,000 tonnes. Overall, a mere 2 lakh metric tonnes had been procured so far as compared to the target of 20 lakh metric tonnes. The Food Corporation of India (FCI) is buying rice from rice mills and as per this decision of the  government, small and marginal farmers are forced to carry their paddy to the rice mills, often situated at long distances, to sell their produce. And the rice mills are paying the farmers only through cheques that are to be cashed only after two months. How funny and unrealistic is the procurement policy can be seen from the above. Corruption in the procurement system at several rice mills meant that farmers were being paid between Rs 480 to Rs 540 per sack of paddy , instead of Rs 648 that has been fixed by the government as MSP. Even in 2004, when the Left Front government was in power, such kind of a situation occurred. But at that time the state government engaged all government and semi-government agencies, including rural cooperatives and self-help groups to purchase paddy directly from the farmers by giving them sufficient funds. The Left Front government had also declared bonus for small and marginal farmers. It also protected potato farmers from resorting to distress sales by supporting them. However, this year the paddy farmers are not even being paid rates they were paid last year when the minimum support price was Rs 600 per bag of 60 kg.  The present policies not only created hurdles for the farmers to sell their paddy but also created a new breed of middlemen in the form of ruling party cadres. Potato farmers are not even lifting potatoes from the cold storages. By some estimates, around 6 lakh tonnes of potatoes are lying in the cold storages in the state. The farmers are unable to pay the lifting charge because potatoes are now selling at Rs 20 or less per 50 kg bag at the storage gate. 

It is in such a dire situation that Bengal is witnessing farmer suicides, a phenomenon totally absent during the 34 years of Left Front rule. In the last three and half months (Oct 01, 2011 – Jan 15, 2012) as many as 21 farmers have committed suicide because of indebtedness and distress sale. 

Most of the farmers committing suicides are small and marginal farmers and also agricultural labourers with meagre holdings of patta land. Among the 21 farmers who have died, three belong to scheduled tribe. As many as 14 of those who committed suicide belong to Burdwan district, which is regarded as the granary of Bengal. Coming from a farmer’s family from that district, I know how the paddy farmers are in a state of dichotomy between what the state government is propagating and what the real situation is. Any investigation will show what kind of predicament the farmers of Bengal are facing now.   

UNDER ESTIMATION OF THE SITUATION

The present TMC-led state government instead of giving due importance to the causes for such farmer suicides in the state, is limiting itself to vehemently denying such incidents. Though its coalition partner, the Congress, admits the cases of  farmer suicides and has also demanded  compensation, the effort seems to be to cover up the anti-farmer policies of the present central government and also to gain some political mileage vis a vis TMC. The chief minister has engaged some bureaucrats and ministers to play that game of denying the reality. It has not taken any proper steps to buy paddy, potato and jute from the farmers by giving them proper minimum support price. This government has failed to involve the government agencies in directly procuring from the farmers and saving them from resorting to distress sales. They are not adding any bonus to the MSP on the plea that there is no money. But they have the money to increase the salaries and daily allowances of ministers and MLAs. They have the money to celebrate Digha festival by spending crores of rupees. At present the government has left the paddy farmers to the mercy of the rice mill owners who are by and large harassing the them to sell their produce at distress rates. This is really horrifying. The under estimation and denial of farmer suicides by the state government is a deliberate attempt to hide the administrative and systemic failures. It also shows political failure because the government has shown no political will to stand by the side of the farmers, though they came to power with slogan of “maa – mathee – manush”. 

More deplorable is the plight of the agricultural labourers who practically have no work for the last six months. MNREGA works have virtually been stopped in many parts of rural Bengal. Elected panchayat bodies cannot function in the villages because of the threats and attacks by the ruling party supported hooligans. The present state government has been able to provide just 19 days of work per household in the 100 days work scheme. Bypassing the elected bodies, the government is now depending on bureaucrats to implement the scheme. 

So, overall an agrarian crisis is looming large in Bengal with vast sections of the farming community in deep distress. On the one hand, they are not getting MSP for their produce, on the other hand many of them are in a debt trap. The government shows no positive stand to address the crisis. It is resorting to gimmicks. The chief minister says that it is the central government that fixes the MSP and so her government has no role to play. But it is the same coalition that is in power at the centre also. The chief minister keeps claiming that it was because of her pressure that the centre was forced to hold its decision regarding FDI in retail and from increasing fuel prices. Then the question arises why is she not pressing hard upon the central government to raise the MSP for farmers? Why is she not demanding the implementation of Swaminathan Commission Report? Why has she not objected when the central government raised the prices of fertilizers and also decontrolled it? Another question is even whatever MSP has been announced, why are the farmers of Bengal not getting even that amount? The suffering farmers of the state are demanding answers to these questions. The government has failed to pay Rs 3 crore as its share in the crop insurance scheme resulting in the affected farmers not getting any benefit.  This shows how unconcerned this government is to the plight of farmers. 

FARMERS’ PROTEST

With the present government failing to protect their interests, the farmers are coming on to the streets to protest against the anti-farmers policy of this government. They are holding rallies against the lackadaisical attitude of this government in solving their problems. In Coochbehar, jute growers have set fire to their crops in protest. In Burdwan, Hoogly and other parts of the Bengal, potato growers did the same to express their protest. In many parts of the state, paddy growers have dumped paddy on the road side and burnt it. Responding to the call given by four Left kisan organisations for state wide agricultural strike on January 4, 2012, many farmers across the state stopped agricultural works and stayed away from their fields during the day to protest against this anti-farmer policy. They are demanding remunerative prices and a proper procurement policy. They also want proper implementation of MNREGA scheme. They are demanding restoration of subsidies in agriculture, including fertilizers. 

It is important thing to note here that because of the present agrarian crisis some farmers in Andhra Pradesh have declared crop holiday. Even in West Bengal, it is seen that in some parts of the state a section of farmers who have incurred considerable losses from the Aman crop are deciding against planting upcoming Boro crop. With full sympathy to their sentiments, there is a need to propagate that this should not happen. Because that would result in a national crisis where there shall be shortage of food and the country will be thrown back to the decades of 1960s when India had to depend on food imports from other countries. 

In such a situation both central and state governments should initiate urgent measures to provide relief to the agricultural sector. Steps should be taken for direct procurement from the farmers with proper MSP and also adding bonus to it. Measures should be taken to implement Swaminathan Commission Report for fixing MSP because at present MSP is not commensurate with the cost of production that has risen sharply. Both central and state governments should come forward with compensation and rehabilitation package to the deceased families taking into consideration the human and social implications. Recently the state government had announced compensation for those who died in AMRI Hospital fire accident and in the Hooch tragedy. Then, why is it not extending the same to families of farmers who have committed suicide? 

Along with these demands for providing relief to those engaged in the agricultural sector, we must doggedly and unitedly fight against the state and central governments in order to make them change their neo-liberal policies and to promote a sustainable model of agriculture that will reduce the risks of farmers and protect their interests.

People’s Democracy, January 29, 2012