Agrarian Crisis - Sociological Dimensions of Farmer's Sucides in Andhra Pradesh

N Purendra Prasad

The agrarian crisis In India has acquired such a magnitude that the sturdy and hardworking peasants in AP, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana and Kerala have been committing suicides. It has been reported that about 500 suicides have taken place in the last one year in Andhra Pradesh. As many as 418 farmers in Punjab and 351 in Haryana were driven into suicide during 1997-98 (cf Ahlawat, 2003).11 is unfortunate but not surprising that suicides took place even in Punjab and Haryana where agriculture is equated with prosperity. A study reveals that 25% of the total suicides occurred in the s181e of Punjab during the period 1991 to 1997. The phenomenon of suicide was, found to be deeply rooted in the agrarian structure and the vulnerable victims included agricultural labourer, small and marginal fanners. The caste composition of the victims showed that the majority of the victims were Jat Sikhs, a dominant caste of the Malwa region in Sangrur district followed by S.Cs (17.5%) of the victims between July 1998 to Jan 1999.

When one scans the literature on agrarian crisis, many changes that have happened in the rural society are mainly attributed to the commercialisation of agriculture. Incidentally, increase in agricultural productivity also turned out to be a source of disenchantment for the fanning community. This certainly has made its impact on their social conditions and livelihoods. There seem to be no two opinions about the crisis that has spread In all regions, to most categories of farmers across the caste and class, and also almost an the crops .

One needs to understand the agrarian crisis that emerged in the decade of 1990s. The suicides are obviously a manifestation or tip of the iceberg of the deeper crisis that agricultural sector is facing across the country. Massive rise in prices of agricultural inputs (both chemical fertilizers and pesticides). heavy dependence of farmers on unreliable and dangerous pesticides and seed stock in the market. lack of institutional credit, dependence on private money lenders at exorbitant interest rates, lack of support prices for agricultural products, a ceiling on the agricultural yield levels from 1970 onwards and increase in social cost (health, education, marriages etc) explain some of the factors that lead to crisis in agriculture sector. The state of agriculture in India resembles a situation in which, yield increasing technology without development of adequate infrastructure (credit, power, extension, input supplies, marketing, irrigation) is superimposed on an agrarian structure where land institutions are not nationalised (Vidyasagar & Suman Chandra, 2004). It appears that the two forces strongly work to put the farmers under constant pressure in rural India. One, the money lenders and the second, those options' that are not advisable are abundantly available. The kind of interventions and options that the state and other agencies devise are more towards meeting the needs of ‘interest groups' rather than fanners, and in turn they become the victims of interventions as well.

Heavy debt and acute poverty apparently forced many a farmer in the state to take the extreme step of committing suicide. To attribute the crisis entirely to poverty and drought would therefore amount to oversimplification of an otherwise complex situation. Drought could certainly be one factor that accelerates the crisis. However, the problems faced by the poor in many villages in AP and, for that matter, in many other states in the country, are far more complex and deep-rooted than what is being made out. For instance, sinking more and more bore-wells to cope up with water shortages has certainly been one of the major causes of indebtedness and decision to commit suicide. But there are quite many unstated reasons as well. (Sarma, 2004). There have been pointers towards the increase in social consumption and change in their life style that farmers have adapted over a period of time. However, the analytical debate appears to be restrictive in terms of crops, crop-related issues without dwelling into the social circumstances of these issues. On the other hand, in a subtle way there are attempts to downplay the havoc created by the commercial interests in rural society by shifting the blame towards the individuals and groups abilities to manage agriculture. By doing so, the administrators and policy makers intend to shift the debate from the structural issues into the individual and personal domains.

In that sense agrarian Crisis also brought several issues of farmers' characteristics in to question. Administrative response has been to question the commitment of fanners in their own occupation, hence it is being pointed out that most of them are indulging in gambling, often commute to the urban centers with no agricultural purpose, laziness, their aspirations have gone up indicating that social consumption has enormously increased to the extent that they over spend, on education, health, marriages etc,. Or simply they were interested in getting their families an ex-gratia payment of Rs one lakh from the government and hence suicides. To state otherwise, agriculture despite problems is viable for those who are committed to it and invest all their energies only on agriculture. The discussion with the officials in Anantapur and Nalgonda districts gave enough indications that the reasons for suicides and distress, has nothing to do with agrarian issues but more to do with their personal problems. Also officials presume that any effort to intervene in case of farmers' needs, is no more than providing support to a individual cause, which' state' cannot afford to do.

A few studies (Chowdary, 1998; Vidyasagar & Suman, 2004) have already made attempts to explain these issues, but for the issue of aspirations of the farming 'community. It appears that on one hand, the modernizers wanted the farmers to adapt new technologies and launch themselves as the newly emerging entrepreneurs but, only to the extent that they serve the needs of corporate sector. At another level, they also expect the fanners to retain the traditional fabric in the social realm so that minimal changes are effected within the social structure to maintain the status quo. Formal credit institutions have been questioning 'creditworthiness' of the farmers. It has already been reported that there are more private moneylenders today than at the time of independence. In many respects, the farmer and the artisans find the moneylender more customer friendly than the banking institutions that are readily available, despite the fact that the interest rates charged by the former are far more stringent. The most blasphemous part of this episode is that what is denied to farmers, labourers or artisans on the ploy of its being dubbed as consumption credit, is graciously provided as a part of investment  portfolio to the industrialists, business houses or even the middle class employees. If one looks at the consumption needs in money terms it is minuscule. And small transactions involved for satisfying those needs are non-viable for the elite credit institutions. Hence, no one can really afford to bother about the rate of interest when the need is primary. It has to be met at any cost. At the other end, in the buoyant urban organised sector, the world of credit is totally different. The very same credit institutions are competing to keep the consumerist fire burning with even unsolicited liberal advances for all sorts of luxuries to the 'credit worthy' (B.D Sharma, 2000). It is evident that formal credit institutions have problems in lending to the farmers primarily because of the socially irrelevant terms of lending although it makes more economic and business sense to lend the fanners within the framework of economic reforms.

The purpose of the paper is to delineate the sociological dimensions of farmers' suicides and question some of the assumptions of' ‘state' and its designated policies.

Methodology:

The field study was conducted in three districts (Nalgonda, Anantapur and Guntur) covering all the three regions in A.P based on the reported cases of suicides. Although villages were also selected on the basis of suicides victims, but the study was conducted on different categories of farmers in each of these villages. Field work  was done in the first two weeks of June, 2004.

Understanding Suicides:

In Anantapur district, around 2000 persons, most of them small and medium farmers have committed suicide since 1997 (Sainath, 2004). Soaring input costs, lack of credit, the collapse of purchasing power, all these pushed many over the brink. The ability to circulate money has been saturated because of successive droughts for the last three years in this district. Droughts in post-90's are much more harsh in some sense because of higher investment & expenditure required and if the crop fails, the quantum of indebtedness with exorbitant interest rates puts the peasants in an extremely vulnerable situation.

Indicating the caste structure of suicide victims, Vidyasagar and Suman Chand (2004) report that suicides occurred across the castes in Anantapur district - Reddy and Balija (OC) ; Kuruba, Boya, Ediga, Sale, Uppara, Golla and Besta (Be) and also Muslims. While Reddy and Balija communities are traditional farming communities, those like Sale, Besla and Upparo are not traditional farming communities but Originally were weavers, fishermen and so on. Owing to decline in their traditional occupations they have also taken recourse to agriculture.

A few studies, for instance, (Sharma B D, 2000) have clearly brought out the role of usurious moneylenders and trading middlemen. It is found that the farmers, especially small and marginal are in the clutches of moneylenders. It is not by preference that farmers are borrowing from moneylenders but because they are forced to as the doors of institutional credit are closed to them. While the state played with various ideas and models of development, the farmer was drawn into the sahukari net even for meeting bare subsistence needs and social obligations. Most of the farmers derive their income from agriculture as a main activity. However, for every social and other expenses in these families they have to depend only on the income from farming. ]f crop fails it affects the entire cycle of life of fanners (Veeresh Committee). Income from agriculture is not only bread and butter for the farming community but also for all other expenses.

Whether it is marriage, death. festivals, education or any other expenses for that matter depend on income from farming. Thus economic problem is one of the causes of suicides which leads to all other social stress.

G. Parihasarathy and Shameen' s (1998) study among cotton growers in warangal district has attributed peasant suicides to the failures of crops mainly cotton and chilly. This study was based on an analysis of secondary data related to rainfall, irrigation, production, yield and prices in Warangal district where 69 out of 174 fanners' suicide cases were reported during 1997-98. The study further revealed that the state of agony and frustration, loss of family status, pressure of repayment of loan and inability to meet the subsistence requirements of family led them to take the extreme step of committing suicides. It has left the issue of understanding the social milieu in which an individual gets alienated from the family and the society for further research.

Muzaffar Assadi’s (1998) paper on farmers’ suicides focuses on reported cases of suicides in Bidar, Raichur, Gulbarga and Dharwad. In earlier occasions of agrarian distress farmers have taken recourse to agitation mode like burning of sugarcane or dumping the surplus produce on the main roads. It was easy for the sugarcane farmers to get organised because of specific geographical concentration of farmers and single market (sugar factory) uniting all these farmers together. Whereas in the case of crops that the deceased farmers cultivated have no such fixed market. In many cases they were  tenant farmers obliged to pay more than 50 percent of their produce under sharecropping.

,A number of studies on the issue of farmers suicides in India, clearly indicate these / multiple factors and social facts rather than locating them as isolated individual cases.

These studies have linked the phenomenon of farmer’s suicide generally to agrarian | crisis, and in particular to larger socio-economic issues. Thus the causes for suicide are multi-factoral, inter-linked and progressive over time, pushing an individual through stages of helplessness, hopelessness and worthlessness. The classical sociologist Durkheim viewed suicide as one of the most private acts an individual could perform, and therefore possible to explain that action in terms of societal forces. Durkheim (1952) concluded that “Collective beliefs, emotions and tendencies are not caused by certain states of consciousness of individuals but by the conditions in which the social group in its totality is placed”. Suicide has therefore been identified as a social fact in need of explanation in terms of other social facts. In his holistic approach, Durkheim sought to explain suicide as a social fact in terms of social distribution, avoiding the individual explanations that might be afforded by psychologists.

With regard to variations in the rate of suicide among different groups and localities in the same society, Durkheim argued that this variation was a result of each society’s collective disposition to suicide. “It is the moral constitution of society which fixes at any given time the quota of voluntary deaths. Thus, for every people there exists a collective force of specific power, which drives men to kill themselves. The victim’s actions which at first sight appear to express nothing but his own disposition are, in fact, the manifestation or external expression of a social condition” (Ibid). In essence, Durkheim’s analysis indicates that the growing alienation of individuals from the family and society as the factor responsible for suicides. Thus, causal generalisation linking social solidarity and suicides is established. He found suicides were more likely when a person lacked social bonds or had relationships disrupted through a sudden change in status, such as unemployment. Durkehim categorises suicides as egoistic, altruistic and anomic, where egoistic suicides give a clue to the understanding of suicides in India.

Section II

Region-specific Cases:

The specificity in each region would reveal a different story giving enough clues about the complexity of the agrarian crisis and hence in this section, an effort is made to bring in few cases from three districts, Anantapur (Rayalaseema), Guntur (Coastal Andhra) and Nalgonda (Telangana) in Andhra Pradesh.

Anantapur:

Drought is not any new phenomenon in Anantapur district as this is one of the two lowest rainfall districts in the country. Anantapur district has about 15% of the cultivated area under irrigation and 85% of the area cultivated is rain-fed. Even 15% of the area under irrigation do not have dependable source of irrigation. Roughly three-fourths of the area irrigated depends on ground water. Thus low rainfall and drought conditions alone do not explain why farmers should take recourse to such extreme step. It is important to examine the nature of agricultural changes and subsequent implications in their social milieu. In case of Anantapur, it has been widely reported that it is adoption of market driven commercial and mono-cropping culture that led to severe stress on local resource base. The water searching agony of the farmers is so deep that the number of bore-wells, have multiplied manifold in many parts of Anantapur district. The bore wells have expanded from the existing 3,600 to nearly a lakh bore-wells in the last three years and the depth increased from 400 feet to almost 1000 feet below the ground. As there are hardly any employment opportunities outside agriculture in the district, this compels them to remain in the village. The field data is reported from Neelampally village which is under Tungabhadra High Level Canal irrigation.

Case 1: Narayana aged 45 years is a tenant. They have one daughter and two sons. Their daughter is married but is mentally unstable, hence it is the family’s responsibility to look after their family as well. One son died due to blood cancer for which they spent about a lakh rupees, spent equal amount for daughter’s health expenditure. Another son is studying 8" class who had to be discontinued in 2003 with their economic and social situation becoming unstable. They had to sell their 6 acres of land in their own village and took land on lease in Neelampalli village. The tenants have to pay Rs 5000 per acre and not more than 25 bags they get from paddy crop. This tenant has leased 9 acres of land and had to pay Rs. 45,000. In the year 2003, they prepared seed bed with 7 bags of paddy (seeds were bought @ Rs 550 per bag) and labour cost was Rs 1000. After they spent about Rs 7,000, they realized in the month of August that there will be no water released into the canal and the paddy saplings got dried up. As a substitute crop, they went in for cultivation of sunflower in 3 acres. They spent 3 bags of seeds @ Rs 550 which costed them Rs 1350 for seeds, weeding was done three times which cost Rs 2000 and labour cost in seedbed preparation Rs 300 (12 persons x Rs 25). Another 4 acres, they cultivated groundnut. 4 packets 70-80 kgs was sown. They got an output of 20 bags which they sold at Rs 780. In effect, they got less than Rs. 10,000 and had to pay Rs 25,000 as rent after hard bargain with the landowner.

As we are tenants, we could not take a single rupee loan in the banks while the landowners regularly use agricultural loans from the banks for other purposes. We normally take loan from the private moneylenders at the rate of 2% per month i.e 24% per annum. Moreover, the productivity on land will be low any day (drought or no drought) because we cannot invest on natural manures (which costs Rs 1500 a lorry load of cow dung) compared to those landowners who at least prepares the land with adequate manures once in two or three years, in our (tenants) case, we may not do it once in 10 years.

Four years back when everybody was getting good support price, we also went in for pappaya cultivation. But when the crop was good, the price was so low (18-20 paise per tonne) that we did not get the labour cost that we invested in harvesting the pappayas. Also with heavy breeze during harvesting period, there was considerable loss. We keep changing with times but nothing seems to change our fate, sums up the respondent.

Case 2: Gopal Reddy

He is 30 years old with two sons studying 1st and kindergarten classes in a private school at a nearby village (where central jail is located) which is 5 kms from Neelampalli. He pays Rs 1500 as school fees per child per annum and also spends Rs 500 on transport per child. This family owns 6 acres of land. In the year 2003 Kharif, he cultivated 4 acres of paddy and 2 acres of groundnut. With severe water problem (as canal water was not released), he took recourse to 7 bore-wells in two months time of which only one bore well provides one and a half inch water (during September — October, 2003) and invested about Rs 10,000 on bore well rigs alone. He took Rs 20,000 from private money lenders @ 24 % interest, sold 3 tulas of gold in the year 2003. With great difficulty, he invested in bore wells and the output was 70 bags for 3 acres of paddy crop while groundnut did not yield more than 4 bags per acre. In the year 2001, his wife had to be operated for caesarian delivery for which private nursing home charged Rs 10,000. Cumulatively he has about a lakh rupees debt and worried about his children’s education and water problem all the time. They visit korrapadu private hospital or hospitals in Anantapur town for health services since PHC located close to the village does not function and medicines are not available.

Case 3: Suicide victim Peddi Reddy:

This being a joint family, the elder one along with his two brothers and their families migrated from Cherlopalli in Yadiki mandal of Tadipatri to Neelampally village 10 years back. They sold 3 acres of land in Cherlopalli and migrated because of canal irrigation in this village. The elder brother who committed suicide was doing petty business such as selling sheep and earned adequate reputation and credit worthiness because of circulation of money in petty business. The two brothers leased in 5 acres of land and were able to get reasonable yield till year 2000, as the entire families used to work, and saved some money. Since they were migrants and landless, within four years of their coming to this village, they were allocated 15 cents of land to the three brothers by the government for the housing purpose. Eventually they sold 15 cents of land and got a lakh rupees and along with private loans they bought 14 acres of land (@Rs 20,000 per acre) three years back i.e for Rs 2,80,000. Ever since they bought, they faced severe drought, and canal water also did not reach their fields and incurred severe crop losses.

In the year 2003, this family in desperation went in for 14 bore wells and had incurred an expenditure of Rs 1,25,000. Eventually, only two bore wells are functioning. With heavy debts and unable to circulate money, he felt quite embarassed in facing the fellow caste men who lend him the money. For instance, one of the rice mill owner in Korrapadu had also lend him Rs 30,000 @ Rs 36% and he put the maximum pressure to take away the paddy and groundnut yield immediately after the harvest. He is supposed to give back the remaining Rs 20,000 but knowing his neck-deep debts, the mill owner delayed in paying him. Every time, Peddi Reddy assured the fellow caste men and could not keep up the date, he felt terrible and ultimately committed suicide when his wife went to their natal village.

Another moneylender tells us the tale of all creditors of Peddi Reddy saying all of them are anxious now what will happen to their money. Peddi Reddy being a gentleman, he borrowed money on his name and all agreements are on his name while each of their share of land has been registered by all three brothers. Now, whether other brothers would take up the liability to pay up, or if they would also leave the village and go away is what worried them at the moment.  All the above three cases revealed that even small adjustments from government school  to private school, providing health care to the sick in the family and migrant aspiring to dig bore wells to cope with water shortage has ended them in severe despair and in one case lead to suicide as well. When detailed enquiries were made why this particular farmer committed suicide while similar situation prevails among the several of fellow farmers, two things came out clearly: although this family belongs to upper caste Reddys, but being migrants from other village, they do not have the same social support, recognition and kin network to fall back upon. Secondly, the social pressure was much  higher on this family to pay up the debts compared to other fellow caste men.

The discussion with several small farmers also revealed that fertilizer shops dealers, cloth | merchants and private doctors did not give credit in the year 2003 as they were unable to \ repay the debts of earlier two years. Small farmers in fact had to invest more money and were the worst affected since they were large number who got bad quality sunflower seeds. Even the subsidies that are provided by the agricultural department would be extended only on the basis of pass book and this again benefits the land owners and not the tenants. For instance, in the year 2002, agriculture department supplied monocron free of cost but only on the basis of pattadar pass book and hence we did not receive any  support.

One of the teacher sums up the social situation prevailing in Anantapur district. He says “Earlier, we used to have some festive atmosphere on the occasion of festivals, marriages and other ceremonies in the village. I have been staying in this village for last 20 years and let me tell you that for last few years, neither any good smell of food nor one finds any woman wearing a good saree, that displaying occassional happiness has become a past thing”. No wonder, there are also demands put up such as “Let Anantapur be declared as a separate country / nation’. This is not a separatist demand like Khalistan but a desperate plea that having neglected for 50 years, we lost all our hopes in the ‘state’ and please leave us alone. All the promises made — in terms of providing irrigation  facilities and other interventions have led us into a dead end.

It was also observed that within the district, irrigated regions with water intensive commercial crop regions were more prone to suicides compared to non-irrigated regions,  without denying that suicides took place in dry regions as well.

Guntur District:

Bodelaveedu Village (Veldurthi Mandal).

Agricultural situation:

This village comprises 310 households. Cultivable land accounts to about 1000 acres in the village. Chili and cotton are the two major crops that occupy approximately 75% of cultivable land (about 700 acres) and paddy, redgram and other crops are grown in the rest of the cultivable land. The caste composition includes: Kammas, Reddys, Madigas, chakalis, and Yanadis. Out of total land holdings of this village, Kamma caste group  alone possess about 750 acres of land, which is about three-fourths of the land ownership.

‘With commercial crops such as chilies, and cotton, farmers were desperate for  groundwater and used tractor generators” for drawing water in the last three years. While water facility is available at 200-250 feet in Veldurthi mandal, however, 400 feet deep is the earliest water point available for them. This implies that bore-wells are one of the expensive options’ as they have to draw water through pipelines for about two kilometers. The failure rate of bore-wells has also increased in the last three years due to number factors like, shortage of rain fall and extensive usage of ground water etc. One of the farmer, Veeraiah Naidu owns 17 acres of land. He has altogether 32 bore-wells, of which only 15 are functional. This indicates the intensity of water scarcity and anxiety  that go along with it.

Farmers individually took maximum risk in cultivating commercial crops. On an average  input costs per acre will not be less than Rs 20,000 for any commercial crop. The market prices always force them to distress sales of the agricultural products. For instance, in the year 2003, the farmers in this village sold cotton at Rs 1400 per quintal while the price varied between Rs 4,200-4,500, by the time most of the farmers had sold it. According to  the village secretary, if a farmer gets Rs 25,000 per acre of commercial crop, the investment will be to the tune of 80% of it. The situation for the tenants is much worse since they also have to pay up Rs 15,000 as lease amount per acre and will be left with nil income or sometimes debts after the harvest. Also the small, medium farmers particularly the tenants have very little option but to approach money lenders for both agricultural and social purposes, makes their situation quite vulnerable. The usual interest  rate is 5-8% per month.

The cost of using tractor generators for drawing water, was Rs 2500 per acre and it had to be repeated at least five times during a crop season. This totals up to Rs. 12,500 per acre, in addition to the other input cost, which went beyond their abilities while the yield and the market price were low that it became a huge burden for all the categories of farmers. Since the small farmers could not afford to use tractor generators, where possible bought water at Rs 1,000 per acre, which comes to Rs 5,000 per acre for each crop. This is an indication for the hiked investment in agriculture along with increase in other input cost particularly fertilizers and pesticides and this is another vicious cycle that farmers are forced to negotiate in continuing agricultural activities. In addition, irregular power supply, spurious seeds etc also contributed to their distress situation. In terms of procuring fertilizers, pesticides and seeds, small and marginal farmers are put in further disadvantage because of lack of social support network with these agents/agencies”. Also since this category of farmers buy fertilizers and pesticides on loan basis, this compells the farmers to sell their produce to the owners of fertilizer shops at less than the market price. The attitude of trying to reap as much when farmers approach the shops seem to be playing havoc with the lives of farmers. Ultimately it is the lack of regulation  in providing the quality fertilizers and pesticides by the state that affects the farmers.

Social expenditure

There is one private school in the village, with a provision up to 10" standard while the government school is only up to 7" standard. The total number of students above a standard in private school was 120 while only 35 students were enrolled in the government school. Most of the students in this village prefer private school because of  its proximity, and its reputation. For instance, toppers for 10" standard in this mandal for last five years are from Bodelaveedu village, all from this private school. It is not that only large farmer’s but also other categories of farmers who send their children to private schools. The fee structure for the private school in the village ranges between 3,600 — 4,500 per annum, while children in another private school spends about Rs6000-15000 per annum. Because of the good ranks private school achieved, the fee structure is on the increase every year. The children studying 11" and 12" standard spend an average of Rs. 30,000 per annum including hostel facility. The investment on education seems to be quite high among all categories of farmers as compared with their economic status. A  specific case of suicide victim has been provided below:

Case 1

Name: Mamillapalli Subbaiah; Age: 45 years (Suicide case)

Wife: Kottamma ; Joint family

Children: One son and one daughter

Subbaiah’s son got married three years back and theirs is a joint family. They owned 5 acres of agricultural land and took 4 acres on lease to cultivate commercial crops i.e chilli and cotton. It was revealed that at the time of suicide taking place in the family, they had debts to the tune of Rs 2,30,000/. Most of these debts are because of agricultural investment such as borewells, other agricultural investments and also incurred expenditure for their daughter’s marriage, Rs 1,50,000 towards dowry including gifts like motor cycle, gold etc four years back.

He has been cultivating chilli and cotton in 9 acres for quite many years now. Unfortunately last two years there is failure of crops, which made him hopeless. Failure in the sense all the farmers left their crops in the field itself in the mid-course of the crop because of acute water shortage in both 2001 and 2002 years. In the year 2003, there was no total loss of crop for this family but yield was low. They got 11quintals of chilli (the ideal quantity is 15-20 quintals) and Squiatals of cotton (the ideal quantity is 10-12 quintals). Increase of investment cost particularly water cost has gone very high to the tune of 40% of his total expenditure on agriculture. This particular family is a case in point and not an exception.

Irregular and shortage of electricity voltage in this rabi season was one of the major constraints the family mentioned about their problems. They also had to use tractor generators for supply of water that made investment very high. Moreover there was no minimum support price to their produce. The actural chilli rate per quintal is around Rs 3,500-4200. But when he sold his product, he sold it for just Rs 1500 per quintal.

The low market prices, increase in social expenditure and pressure to withstand social honour in the village’ were specific reasons that were mentioned by the family for ' Subbaiah suicide The case of Boleveedu indicates that commercial crops suck the farmers beyond their abilities and probably make them susceptible to take maximum individual risk without thinking the consequences of it. Also children’s education seem to be another major factor where private schools and colleges became inevitable and put enormous burden on their livelihoods. Thus, while commercialization of education is an economic factor but the ‘best education’ as a social value pushes the farming community in Guntur district into the vicious cycle of debts, poverty and subsequent crisis.

Nalgonda:

Chintapally village (Miryalaguda):

Chintapally village is under Nagarjunasagar irrigation project (NSP). Whenever the release of water to this command area is delayed or stops in a season, it creates political ripples because it is usually suspected that neighboring district gets the maximum share of water and hence no water for this district. The intensity of the situation in indicated by the fact that about 400 people from this village have been migrating for last three years to Damercherla and other places for harvesting chilli and paddy, which was attracting labour earlier from Palamuru and Devarkonda to work in paddy fields during  transplantation and harvesting.

Small and marginal farmers get loan from sahukari’s @ 36% per annum and if these  farmers approach banks, they need to produce different certificates, which take 2-3  months. The loans advanced by Grameena banks at 12% interest rate also would amount to much higher interest rates by the time, farmers actually receives the loan. Private  moneylenders are from the village, mostly farmers and commission agents in the market  ' yard. No moneylender is willing to give credit without clearing/repaying earlier debts.

Credit in is not easily available as all the moneylenders know that NSP water will not be released and hence less possibility of repaying it in near future. This has put the farming community in much harsher credit market. Despite these factors, a few farmers are pursuing different sources to get loans for the purpose of drilling bore-wells” to save the crops.

Case I: Samala Veeramma, Aged 55yrs. Husband: Samala Bal Reddy aged 65 yrs.

Son: Saidu Reddy 20yrs. Caste: Reddy

Their son is physically challenged (affected by polio). Earlier they had 10 acres of land (7 acres dry and 3 acres wet under canal irrigation). They had to sell 7 acres of dry land - 2 acres for their son’s polio treatment (medical expenses) for Rs.18, 000 per acre 10 years back, although he could not be cured from polio. Then again another 2 acres of land was sold 6 years back for 30,000 per acre in order to build a pucca house and recently they had to sell 2 acres of land since he started to study medical lab technician course after he failed intermediate. Veeramma says that they have already spent around Rs, 20,000 in one year and still one more year to go. She says, they might even sell another acre of land to support him study, so that he might get some job, knowing well that he can’t work in agricultural field.

As of now they hold 3 acres of land, which is under canal irrigation. Since last 3 years only 1/2 acre is being cultivated ie. paddy by drawing water from a nearby tank. The tank is being filled from NSC for drinking purpose. Remaining 2 1/2 is left barren for the last 3 years. They have sold off their bullocks and cattle 2 years back due to scarcity of fodder. Only one buffalo is left with them.

Apart from the money, which they got from selling land, they also borrowed Rs. 50, 000 from relatives for the construction of house. As there is no crop for last 3 years they are not in a position to repay. They also have a debt of Rs. 20,000 in Nagarjuna Gramina Bank.

Case 2: Gogula Anjaiah Aged 42 yrs, (suicide victim)

Caste: Golla (BC) ; passed class 8; Wife: Kotamma (40 yrs)

Son: Rama Krishna (17 yrs), just passed 10 th class. Planning to join college.

Earlier, they had around 15 acres of land. Anjaiah had sold most of his land. Presently they owned 4 acres of land. For last 3 years it was left uncultivated, as there was no water. Kotamma says they have debts in AD Bank, Grameena Bank, Fertilizer shop, etc. To fertilizer shop alone Anjaiah owes Rs.1.2 lakh rupees. Kotamma says she doesn’t know where all Anjaiah has borrowed. Before committing suicide, few months back the Electricity Dept. people took away their fan and TV for nor clearing the dues. Even Bank people and other moneylenders used to enquire frequently about Anjaiah. He used to make Kotamma say that he is not at home to the private moneylenders. He also was reputed to settle disputes in the village. With mounting debts, his social esteem at stake, he may have committed suicide is what was revealed.

The above two cases in Nalgonda reveals that mounting social pressure in terms of agriculture and social consumption, saturation in the credit market because of uncertainty with the release of NSP water, and social esteem seem to be the factors that compelled farmers to take harsh decisions.

Section III

Discussion:

Efforts to delineate the agrarian crisis in terms of personal, psychological and deviants is only to shift the responsibility from social, economic and political domains to the individual level. Instead of projecting the exceptional cases that are not genuine, the government should focus more on the genuine cases that are majority. Death and death like situation creates enormous suffering which is intangible. It was found that in many cases children dropped out from schools and colleges. The crisis had delayed many marriages of daughters and sisters during last three years and innumerable health problems. The social pressure is much higher on the tenants and ‘new category of farmers’ who earlier had no tradition of cultivation, most of them belonging to backward  castes and dalits.

Fertilizer companies and shopkeepers create over anxiety about the crops and sell unnecessary pesticides. As a result, farmers are purchasing whatever pesticides that are readily available with the traders on the advice of the trader. Hence the regulation by the state in terms of these inputs and technical guidance to the farmer in terms of water potential points and cropping pattern will have to be implemented. The purpose of borrowing is not single. In almost all the cases purpose of borrowing was a combination of economic and social. Unless economic purpose (investment in agriculture including bore-wells; and house construction) and social purpose (particularly education and health) is included as part of Bank’s lending policies, it may not be possible to bring a  new lease of life to the farming community.

With the world bank’s dictums Telugu Desam government deprioritised agricultural sector, and paid the price for it. However, the newly formed congress government also by prioritising agriculture sector seem to be speeding up with the ‘populist’ programmes rather than focussing on the core issues of farming sector. The way with which prime minister Manmohan Singh announced generous package of assistance to a few in  Somayajulapalli (Kurnool) and Dharmapuri in Mahaboobnagar district of A.P raises the question whether it is possible to extend the same to all the aggrieved families in different parts of the country. If one looks at the scheme of things, it gives us a clue that unless there are comprehensive measures taken up both short term and long term, the crisis will  loom large over the farming sector for another decade if not more.

Large area in Rayalaseema and Telangana is unirrigated and is inhabited by small and marginal farmers. They are able to get at most one crop per year and practice low yield farming, focusing on groundnut. Such was the situation that small and marginal farmers, who found total failure of groundnut crop, allowed their cattle to eat up the crop. Because of the severe crisis, lender-borrower relationship got badly affected and it affects both socially and psychologically in the villages. On the other hand, credit continues to elude the small and marginal farmers. They continue to be dependent on the informal credit networks. Even if this credit is available, it still does not address the problem of  low yields or distress sales (Murali Patibandla and Trilochany Sastry, 2004).

‘Formal credit institutions will have to completely restructure their lending policies and empathetically develop farmer-borrower category as a different category than the other kinds of borrowers. Institutional credit has always been given to trust worthy large farmers (mostly) and few other categories in each village. New farmers are not given credit even once. Collateral security is the pre-requisite before lending money. In a sense, only those who are very sure of repayment, are trusted. Even in case of A.P micro irrigation project (APMIP), subsidy of 67% and 33% to drip and sprinklers in Anantapur district where banks are approached to provide loans to the farmers for the rest of money,  banks attitude is very lukewarm since the loan repayment is 9 years.

During the field work, it was revealed that even the moneylenders in the informal credit market tightened their grip. As a consequence, small & marginal farmers will have to further pay higher interest rates. The unjust burden on farmers is one of the main reasons for the farmers’ suicides. Further any effort to separate out economic and social aspects of their lives to debunk social domain” as unproductive and unviable would only put the  farmers into much harsher circumstances.

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