Peasant surprise from suicide belt

Fewer Farmers End Lives In First Half Of 2009, But Experts Say Real Test Lies Ahead

Kartikeya | TNN
 

Mumbai: The number of farmer suicides in the country has come down significantly in the first half of 2009. Whereas 1,105 farmers committed suicide in 2008 because of agricultural factors such as crop failure, indebtedness and drought, the same number has come down to 203 in the first half of 2009. With 71, Maharashtra has had the largest number of such suicides in 2009 but the number is considerably down from 2008 when it stood at 622.
    The Congress-led UPA government had announced a populist loan waiver scheme in February 2008 to bail out some 3.6 crore farmers who had borrowed from various public sector banks. It is now being cited as the key reason for the drop in number of farmer suicides. Experts though worry that the trend could reverse due to the drought that the country now faces.
    Three crore small and marginal farmers as well as 67 lakh other farmers have so far benefited from the loan waiver scheme that cost the exchequer Rs 65,318 crore. The scheme is said to be one of the key reasons which helped UPA pull off a victory in the 15th Lok Sabha elections.
    In Maharashtra, 1,906 farmers took their own lives in 2008. However, only 622 of these deaths were attributed to purely agricultural reasons. Until June 18, 2009 the total number of farmer suicides in the state is down to 513, of which, only 71 were an outcome of agrarian factors.
    Economists though caution against reading too much into the loan waiver scheme and the impact it has had on the general plight of farmers. “It is natural that politicians will take credit for the fall in number of farmer suicides by attributing it to their scheme. But we have to remember that much of the agriculture that is practised is non-viable and there are a host of factors which drive a farmer to suicide. It may not just be indebtedness and you cannot draw a direct link between loan waiver and suicides,’’ said Abhay Pethe, an economist from Mumbai University.
    Bhede explained that the main purpose of the loan waiver scheme was to restructure the manner in which finance is made available to farmers by banks. “The real benefits of the scheme will percolate only slowly to agriculturists,’’ he said.
    Experts also point out that the number of farmer suicides has fallen in the first six months of 2009 when there was no drought-like situation. Since then monsoons have played truant increasing the misery of farmers in the main cropping season. Rainfall in the country between June 1 and August 12 has been 29 % below normal. This is one factor which may reverse the trend of falling number of farmer suicides.
Farmers repaying loans on time to pay 1% less interest
    Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday announced that farmers who have taken loans and repaid them on time will pay 1% less interest than the market rate on the next loan. They will pay interest at the rate of 6% against the existing 7%. Mukherjee also disbursed loans amounting to Rs 2.20 crore to 2,222 farmers and members of self-help groups. AGENCIES