Mounting debt driving Telangana cotton farmers to the edge

About 80% of the 1,300 growers who ended their lives in the State are cotton farmers

HYDERABAD, OCTOBER 5:  

Wilting prospects: The first picking reveal a damaged crop due to discolouration in the cotton intensive mandals of Adilabad district in Telangana - Photo: S HARPAL SINGH

Lakshmi (name changed) recently joined as a nanny for a salary of ₹5,000 per month. “You know, I’m getting far more than what I would have earned had I stuck to the cotton field,” she told BusinessLine.

A farmer with about five acres from a remote village in Warangal district, Lakshmi knew that it is going to be a failed season after waiting for rains for a few weeks.

After investing ₹1.50 lakh on inputs to sow cotton, she realised that she would get no more than a couple of ‘picks’ that would hardly get any income, forget repaying the loan she had taken. She quickly made up her mind and joined as a nanny to take care of a new-born in a civil servant’s house to service the debt. Thousands of other farmers in Telangana are facing a similar fate.

With debts mounting after failure of three consecutive seasons, about 1,300 farmers committed suicide since June 2, 2014, when the new State was formed.

Rising number

The incidence has gone up in September after it became evident that there would be no revival of the season.

By then, they would have spent double their normal investments as they were forced to go for sowing for the second time.

“At the core of the problem is cotton. About 80 per cent of the 1,300 that committed suicide were cotton farmers. The reason is you need more investments to grow cotton,” Ravi Kanneganti, a leader of the Ryhtu Joint Action Committee (Rythu JAC), said.

The JAC is an umbrella body of farmers’ organisations, non-governmental organisations and agricultural experts formed to highlight the agrarian crisis in the State. It has been collecting information from villages and collating it to put the crisis in perspective.

The State grows cotton on about 17 lakh hectares. Though the figures with the State’s Agriculture Department show that sowings had covered the normal area, crop in vast areas had not received water at the right intervals, resulting in poor flowering.

New issues

Now that the season is over, the farmers are facing a different challenge as procurement is slated to begin next week.

The Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) Chairman and Managing Director BK Mishra has said that it would begin procurement on October 10 in major market yards in the State.

But the farmers allege that the number of procurement centres and the number of procurement days in a week are working against their interests.

“It operates only two-three days in a week, forcing the farmers to keep the produce in tractors and wait in long queues. Rentals we pay work out to be very costly,” a farmer said.

MSP too low

The farmers are also worried about the minimum support price (MSP) fixed for the season.

“They have increased the price by just one per cent. It is ridiculously low. The Central and State governments must pay ₹500 each to keep the MSP at ₹5,000 a quintal. At ₹4,100, it is not at all remunerative,” the farmer said.

(This article was published on October 5, 2015)

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-business/mounting-debt-drive-telangana-cotton-farmers-to-the-edge/article7727057.ece