Staring at food crisis

But amid the huge potential for agriculture growth, there is always a looming crisis which compels farmers to commit suicide.

India’s 20 agro ecological regions with 60 sub-regions grow the world’s largest variety of crops and animal breeds. Nearly 60 per cent of the population depends on agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, forestry and fishery sectors. There are thousands of rivers, rivulets, lakes and water bodies across the country to sustain agriculture growth. But amid the huge potential for agriculture development, there is always a looming crisis which compels farmers to commit suicide.

As per the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), 2.85 lakh farmers have committed suicide in the country between 1995 and 2012. The NCRB quotes 5,650 suicides in 2014. When the incident of farmers’ suicide is highlighted by media and politicians, the actual reasons of farmers’ suicide are shrouded in confusion.

Though loan overburden from various formal and informal sources and family tension are the main reasons for suicide, in some places, natural deaths and death due to diseases are also shown as suicide in a panchnama for compensation.  Why do farmers commit suicide when global and domestic demand is growing?

Government procurement centres offer support price to farmers. But in many places, farmers sell their produce to middlemen and traders at a lower cost. As per the NSSO survey, 71 per cent farmers were unaware of the minimum support price and 81 per cent do not know how to make use of it. Like farm produce, the supply chain for handicrafts and handloom products is also controlled by middlemen and traders.

The Bidri artisans of Bidar, the Batua makers of Bhopal, the Chikankari artisans of Lucknow, the Madhubani painters of Bihar, the handloom weavers of Sonepur, the Paithani saree weavers of Maharashtra and the weavers of Mahboobnagar and Ongole can improve their profit margin in a transparent supply chain.  

Crop diversity is an inbuilt drought measure. There are hundreds of edible herbs and shrubs in farmers’ field which serve as food backup which has been depleted due to extensive use of chemical fertilisers, pesticides, spurious seeds, mono crop activities and over exploitation of ground water.

Extraction of gravel and boulders from 36 fresh streams in Jammu Kashmir has depleted 50 per cent of the famous large size sweet water trout fish. Tribals in Koraput district have leased out their land to traders for lemon grass cultivation whose benefit goes to a few traders.

Thousands of villagers in Madurai district supply medicinal plants to big pharma companies through middlemen and traders at a throw away price. Over-exploitation of edible herbs and shrubs in Madurai will create food crisis in the district. Ghatikal village of Warangal district was once rich with crop diversity. Cotton, maize, paddy, pulses, green gram, sorgum and bajra once provided food safety to villagers. Today, paddy and cotton have eaten up other crops.

Farmers’ suicide in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana attributes to loss of crop diversity and corruption. Similarly, the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra has become the suicide capital mainly due to spread of cotton crop to 70 per cent of total acreage.

Economic historian R C Dutt noted that British imposed exorbitant land tax, introduced mono crops and neglected irrigation which had caused series of famine in India. In the post-independence period, little effort was made to preserve the crop diversity. Every state has lost export quality indigenous crops.

Muskbudit, Kamath and Zag rice varieties have become extinct in Kashmir. The famous Amber and golden delicious apples are fast disappearing from Kashmir and Ladakh. So far, the number of crops lost across the country has not been scientifically documented.  Farmers are pushed to mono culture trap and are exposed to huge market risk due to crop diversity loss.

A study on India’s research output and collaboration conducted by Thomson Reuters found India’s contribution to research output in agriculture science is less than 1 per cent of the global output. Unscientific agriculture practices aggravate the crisis.

Farmers blast rocky hill slopes in Ratnagiri to grow Alphonso mango which is not a recommended practice. Emu farming has failed in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh because there was no scientific appraisal before introducing the scheme.

Input management
Poor input management, supply of substandard and spurious inputs to farmers have affected farm productivity. Input agents advice farmers what kind of seeds, fertilisers and pesticides they should use. The Agrochemical Policy Group (APG) has estimated the crop loss at Rs 6,000 crore in the country due to use of spurious pesticides. Water is the most important input for agriculture growth which is wantonly destroyed in India.

It is estimated that the water gap would be 50 per cent by 2030. The Nasa’s twin Grace satellite found India’s food bowl with a paddy coverage of 38,061 sq km is losing ground water at the rate of one metre in every three years.

In many places, the extension service officers collect money from farmers for the services. More than 2/3rd of Indian villages across the country are not getting extension services. The National Mission on Agricultural Extension and Technology (NMAET), which was established with an outlay of Rs 13,073.08 crore to provide quality services, will succeed if quality people are available for the purpose.

Distribution of relief, freebies and subsidy has amassed massive idle energy across the country. Fake documentations are made to siphon away subsidy by professional poachers who are not farmers. Most of the agriculture labours have migrated to cities for small jobs because they do not get wage regularly.

Their small landholdings no longer earn them income due to loss of collective bargaining power. As per the NSSO survey, 40 per cent Indian farmers are ready to quit farming provided they get an option. This is high time to sincerely address farmers’ crisis before it precipitates into a food crisis.