Life had never offered too many choices to Safar Molla. He lost his father early and was forced to shoulder the family responsibility from a tender age. This winter, the 17-year-old marginal paddy farmer from Kaltikuri village of Bhatar block in Burdwan district in West Bengal brought an end to his miseries by consuming pesticide.

According to his mother, Rajia, he had a bad ‘boro' season during December 2010 and May 2011, largely due to spiralling cost of fertiliser and irrigation, leading to unpaid bills to private money lenders. He leveraged his assets further to raise loans for the Amon cultivation (busy season).

However, as the crop was ready for harvesting in November 2011, Safar was faced with a losing proposition. As against a production cost of Rs 600-700 per bag (of 60 kgs each), farmers were offered approximately Rs 580 a bag – net of transportation cost, unloading charges and rejects from the minimum support price of Rs 648 a bag – by the mill owners.

The writing on the wall was clear. There was no way Safar could repay the Rs 80,000 loan, leave alone the chance of getting a fresh loan.

Rising tally

Safar is not alone, according to a local newspaper Anandabazar, nine farmers committed suicide in Burdwan district – the rice bowl of the State – between November 2011 and January 20, 2012. According to the CPI (M), the State had witnessed nearly 30 farm-suicides, inclusive of share-croppers and agricultural labourers since October 2011.

The State Government has so far acknowledged only one farmer suicide in State. “How can we be responsible for the personal loans that the farmers have taken for priorities other than farming,” Mr Jyotipriya Mallick, State Food and Supplies Minister, told Business Line .

State policies blamed

While the State Government shrugs off its responsibilities for such deaths, Mr Nirupam Sen, CPI(M) politburo member and a former minister, blames Ms Mamata Banerjee government's procurement policy for triggering the crisis.

Apparently aimed at keeping the middlemen (private arotdars and over 500 co-operative societies) at bay, the State asked rice mills to directly buy paddy, at MSP, from the farmers by cheque.

“We are not getting the MSP as mills are deducting nearly Rs 70 on every bag,” alleges Sheikh Jamal, at Kaltikuri.

Market uncertainty

Talking on condition of anonymity, a rice mill owner admitted that there were deductions from MSP. However, according to him, it was done mostly to compensate a crash in open market prices; primarily due to 25 per cent higher production to 15 million tonne (mt) paddy, during this season and cheap inflow from neighbouring Jharkhand.

In West Bengal, successive governments procured approximately one-fifth of the rice production - much below the mandated 50 per cent - forcing mill owners to look at open market for nearly 80 per cent of rice.

Assuming 60 per cent conversion ratio from paddy to rice, at the current market price of rice Rs 1,500 a quintal, the mills may lose over Rs 100 on every quintal of paddy purchased from farmers at MSP of Rs 1,080. Mills will make some gains, if rice is procured by the State at MSP of Rs 1,715 a quintal.

Problems compounded

“There was no such problem last Amon season (2010) as open market prices were higher than MSP,” a mill owner said adding that a similar problem in 2009 was tackled by the State by offering bonus on MSP.

Mr Mallick did not make a similar promise this year. The State is targeting of 2 mt rice procurement, this season, against a total production of approximately 9 mt.

abhishek.l@thehindu.co.in

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