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Another farmer kills self in West Bengal

KOLKATA: Even though the West Bengal government is yet to confirm that suicides by farmers in Ausgram block of Bardhaman district are drought-related, with the third incident of a farmer killing himself, district authorities admitted on Thursday that they were “under a stress of a debt burden.”

“It is not possible to be sure of whether the suicides are drought-related or not, but it is clear that the economic condition of the farmers was not good and they seem to be under the stress of a debt burden,” Omkar Meena, the district magistrate told The Hindu.

On Wednesday, Gosai Patra, a share-cropper, hanged himself. His wife had delivered a baby girl merely three days ago and his family say he had appeared stressed ever since, Mr. Meema added.

Bardhaman is one of the 11 districts in the State declared drought-affected. Gosaid Patra is the third farmer to have committed suicide within a fortnight.

The State government however, maintained that whether or not the suicides were drought-related could be ascertained only after further investigation. “As of now I would not say that these farmers committed suicide because of the drought, as that is being investigated,” said Naren Dey, the State's Minister for Agriculture.

Clarifying that there was no scarcity of foodgrains in the district and that none of the families of the farmers in question faced a threat of starvation, Mr. Meena said some of them had fallen into a debt trap with local money lenders because of inadequate institutionalised financing.

“The situation gets aggravated in rain-fed areas at the time of a drought. Particularly in a single-crop area, if the monsoon fails, the farmers are affected,” he added.

“There is a need for improving the access to loans from banks and micro-financing. We had a meeting with the bankers operating in the district on August 31 asking them to provide loans as per the guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India in drought-affected areas,” Mr. Meena said.

Mr. Dey said the overall drought situation in the State had shown no signs of improvement even after sporadic rainfall in some places.

“The State government is encouraging farmers to plant an early Rabi crop this year. The Agriculture Department will begin the distribution of seeds for alternative crops such as oilseeds and legumes, that require less water by mid-September,” Mr. Dey said.

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