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Vishwanath Kulkarni

FROZEN HOPES: Mrs Chikkatayamma, the wife of Hanume Gowda, who committed suicide, with her three children at Bidare Hosahalli in Mandaya district, Karnataka. — G.R.N. Somashekar

Bangalore , Sept. 18

THIRTYFIVE year-old Chikkatayamma is yet to recover from the sudden suicide of farmer-husband Hanume Gowda that changed her life in recent past. Drought-hit and debt-ridden Hanume Gowda of Bidarahosalli near Maddur chose to end his life abruptly, leaving a grieving wife and three young kids to wonder how to survive.

Drought and debts may just be the trigger for these suicides. The underlying fact that monetisation of rural economy, which led to the disappearance of age-old barter system, and the discontinuance of traditional agricultural practices such as community farming have driven the farmers, especially the small and marginal ones, to the brink of despair even as the country's monsoon-dependent agrarian system faces extreme vagaries.

``An average farmer has become more vulnerable today with the disappearance of barter system and traditional practices,'' said Mr R. Dwarakinath, former chairman of the Karnataka Agriculture Commission. Neglect of agriculture by successive Governments, especially in the aftermath of the country's tremendous success in Green Revolution, coupled with the failure on the part of farmers in recent years to transition themselves to market-driven farming from subsistence agriculture have pushed them to the edges of financial nadir.

``Of late, farmers, especially the small and marginal ones are losing confidence," Mr Dwarakinath said adding that unless something was done drastically to instil confidence among them, the situation could get worse. While market-driven agriculture has its own uncertainties, it is important to note that farmers are now forced to resort to purchased inputs as the barter-system almost vanished. This has heightened the risk of falling into a debt trap in case of crop failure or price slump, Mr Dwarakinath said. Moreover, there is no correlation between the investments and returns a farmer gets as cost of inputs have risen significantly while the commodity prices are not remunerative.

Crop failures leading to suicides are more likely in irrigated farming, where expectations and investments are relatively high. This is evident from the fact that majority of the recent spate of suicides have taken place in well irrigated tracts of Mandya and Hassan districts of Southern Karnataka. ``The stakes are high for a farmer in the irrigated areas as compared to the ones in the dry lands as the former would be investing more on inputs as compared to the latter," said Mr Siddaraju, a farmer and former MLC from Maddur. Moreover, there is a need to create awareness among farmers about crop diversification, he added.

Over 250 cases of farmer suicides have been reported in Karnataka since April this year. Official sources said that claims in as many as 107 cases of the 182 investigated have been rejected and these deaths were classified as those who were not real farmers and not linked to the current dry spell scorching Karnataka's hinterlands. Sources said relief had been disbursed to the families of 25 farmers, while authorities were in the process of disbursing relief to about 29 families more whereas several other cases were still before the committees.

While it is largely felt that the Rs 856 crore State Government relief package has failed to curb the mounting suicide rates, Mr Vijay Gore, Development Commissioner, Karnataka, said the impact of package was being felt and rescheduling of loans especially in the co-operative sector was already happening. The public sector and commercial banks have agreed to take a relook at the loans and are expected to come out with package, Mr Gore said.

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