The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : Focus on the farm sector

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Thursday, Dec 22, 2005

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Focus on the farm sector

S. Nagesh Kumar

The Ramachenna Reddy panel report highlights the dangers of neglecting the agriculture sector in Andhra Pradesh.

A COMMISSION of inquiry that went into the suicides by farmers and weavers in Andhra Pradesh has highlighted the adverse impact of neglecting irrigation and agriculture in a predominantly agrarian State. Stating that these and allied sectors such as cooperatives and dairying suffered conscious neglect during the Chandrababu Naidu regime, the commission attributed the suicides to this policy change. It quoted Communist Party of India MP S. Sudhakar Reddy as saying the World Bank had asked the State Government not to construct major irrigation projects and concentrate only on minor projects.

Headed by L. Ramachenna Reddy, a retired district judge, the commission was appointed by the Rajasekhara Reddy Government to probe suicides between July 1, 1998 and May 11, 2005. While holding the TDP's policies responsible, the Commission also pointed out that it was the duty of MPs and MLAs to draw the Government's attention to the plight of farmers and agricultural labourers. The Telugu Desam Party has rejected the report alleging the Government appeared to have influenced it.

Farmers' suicide in Andhra Pradesh has been hitting the national headlines for a decade. In 2000, the State was rocked by the revelation that 26 debt-ridden farmers of Guntur district had sold their kidneys. Many of the cases were reported from the Palanadu region where cotton and chillies are grown. Low prices and poor crop yields forced many to end their lives. The issue figured in Parliament when the NDA Government admitted that Andhra Pradesh topped the list in the number of farmers' suicides.

While the Congress has criticised the TDP over the findings, its own record is not unblemished either. Between May 14, 2004 (the year the party came to power) and November 10, 2005, 1068 farmers committed suicide. But the TDP as put the figure at 2,583 in addition to the starvation deaths of 277 weavers.

Concerned over the trend, the National Human Rights Commission deputed K.R. Venugopal, a retired IAS officer, as Special Rapporteur to study the crisis while the Government appointed Jayati Ghosh, leading agrarian economist, to head a commission on farmers' welfare. The Government claims suicides by farmers has declined sharply following the introduction of economic reforms based on Prof. Ghosh's recommendations. While there were 915 cases of suicide in the first 30 weeks of the Congress rule, there have been only 116 deaths in the next 33 weeks — which is an eight-fold decrease — the Government claims.

However, the farm sector in Andhra Pradesh is going through a purple patch right now, thanks to a good monsoon. Irrigation reservoirs are full and hydel power generation has reached an all-time high, so much so the Government has offered Rs.200 crore as refund to power consumers.

During the past one year, the Rajasekhara Reddy Government, in an attempt to project itself as pro-farmer, announced a massive Rs.45,000 crore outlay for pending irrigation projects. Many of them are caught up in controversies relating to cost escalation, corruption charges, opposition from the displaced, and environmental issues. Nearly a dozen public debates on irrigation projects, have failed to resolve the tangle. They have instead ended up as platforms for slanging matches between the TDP and the Congress.

In the 200-page report, Mr. Ramachenna Reddy has pointed out that the irrigation budget for the seven financial years during the TDP Government was Rs.8,287 crore against Rs.6,374 crore in 2005-06 alone. "The budget allotment by both the Governments ... clearly indicates that the previous Government led by the TDP neglected the irrigation sector... "

Politics apart, several inadequacies were found in the implementation of well-defined policies. Nine districts received less than normal rainfall for two years, forcing farmers to go in for more borewells. The borewells did not yield adequate water and the crop failed. The debt-ridden farmers ended their lives, a majority by drinking pesticide. A law requiring the permission of the revenue department to drill a borewell was never enforced.

Strengthening the delivery system of agricultural credit, quality inputs, and extension of credit to small and marginal farmers would have also helped reduce the number of deaths, the report said. According to an expert, the water-intensive paddy crop had to be replaced with dry crops during rabi in at least one million hectares to conserve water. "Had the Government followed the crop adjustment programme by giving incentives to farmers who raised dry crops in rabi ... the suicides ... would have decreased."

Centre's role

The Centre's role in farmers' suicides has also been discussed in the report. While fixing the minimum support price, the Centre did not take into consideration the increased cost of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. Debt-ridden farmers who made heavy investments faced an economic disaster due to un-remunerative prices.

Import liberalisation too had an adverse impact. The production of nine varieties of oilseeds doubled from 10 million tonnes in 1980 to 20.5 million tonnes in 2001-02. But import of cheap edible oil in the last five years impacted oilseed prices in India, which registered a sharp fall.

Interestingly, the report touched on the psychological reasons behind the suicides — issues on which some TDP and BJP leaders drew flak. Suicides could not be attributed just to mental depression as various socio-economic factors contributed to them. In the United States suicide rates fell during the World Wars when unemployment was low but increased during the Great Depression of the 1930s when it was high.

The Commission has brought into sharp focus the contrasting economic policies of two successive governments — one pro-reform to the hilt and the other convinced that free power supply to farmers is the panacea. While the earlier policy triggered an agrarian crisis, the results of the changed priorities are yet to be seen.

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