Bitter harvest

The suicide of a sugarcane farmer from Belgaum underscores the plight of farmers in the country who cannot get remunerative price for what they produce and hence, perpetually find themselves in debt.

If in most other fields, the manufacturers decide on the price at which they will sell their products, the unorganised farming community is at the mercy of market forces dominated by big companies, wholesale dealers and traders who decide on how much to pay the farmers, keeping enormous margins for themselves. That’s where the government is expected to step in, offer a decent price for farm produce keeping all the input costs in mind. But as in the case of Vittal Arabhavi, the marginal farmer who committed suicide, the government tends to be in the grip of powerful lobbies, who exploit the farmers’ helplessness to the hilt. 

Many of the problems that Karnataka’s sugarcane farmers have been raising, like low price, delayed payment, lack of storage facilities, apply to their counterparts in other sugar belts in the country too. The price they receive for the cane is not keeping pace with soaring costs of inputs such as pesticides, fertilisers, water, power, etc. Rising costs force cultivators to turn to avaricious money lenders. The failure of the sugar factory owners to pay for sugarcane supplied is the proverbial final straw that breaks the camel’s back.

Sugar mill owners in Karnataka have rejected the government-proposed fair and remunerative price for sugarcane, arguing that as a result of the glut in the international market, the price of sugar has fallen. This is a specious argument as India’s sugar industry hardly exports sugar since most of it is consumed at home. Besides, sugar is not the only product that mill owners sell. By-products of sugar such as ethanol command a good price in the market; hence sugar mill owners are hardly suffering.

In fact, food security experts have pointed out that from a single tonne of sugar cane, mill owners can make at least Rs 30,000. In such circumstances, why shouldn’t they fork out at least 10 per cent of their earnings to the cane growers? It is time the government extended a sympathetic ear to cane farmers rather than the sugar lobby. As India’s third largest producer of sugar cane, Karnataka must take the lead in ensuring cane growers a fair remuneration.