Brundaban Sahu of Bargarh sprayed pesticides on his paddy field thrice to do away with BPH pests sucking in paddy-juice leaving the seeds shallow. But the pesticides had no affect on the pests that he witnessed and reported the matter to the agriculture technicians under Deputy Director, Agriculture and the district administration, hoping for a relief.
The bureaucratic indifference crumbled his confidence and he torched the standing crop in the field either to end the pest there or to check them to spread to other fields. The next day he, looking at his field black and barren, felt utterly hopeless and ended his life taking in pesticide.
A series of farmer’s suicides is continuing for absence of Government concern. As many as 12 farmers have committed suicide in Bargarh district alone.
Instead of sympathizing with the bereaved families, the Minister suspected a Blue-Whale effect on Brundaban and told the Press to show a CD in which Brundaban was instigated for suicide. The State Government of Odisha in the habit of denying farmer’s suicide due to crop loss, loan burden and utter financial deficit for distress sale of their produce,and natural calamities, is , probably, trying to downplay Brunda’s suicide.
Brunda had two objections before suicide: (1) Against the agricultural technology, as even by spraying pesticide in the field thrice, he had no effect on pests at all. To this experts said that either the dose practically used might be less or the quality of the pesticide might be low or by constant use of particular type of pesticide the pests might have gone resistant etc. All these, very obviously, led to a question as to who was the prescriber of the pesticides. In the system, each Deputy Director office has the provision of a Quality Control Inspector, of which the AAOs are in charge, who hardly collect random samples intermittently to ascertain quality of the pesticides sending them to concerned laboratories in usual course. Only when public uproar brimmed up after Brunda’s suicide, they rushed to examine the quality of pesticides and declared eleven of them to be deficient in quality. Facts have come out also that pesticides banned by the Government of India are in use in Odisha. How could they enter into the market of Odisha needs a big debate. The Village Agricultural Workers (VAW), working at the grassroots, not supposed to have knowledge of chemical bonding of a pesticide. They can only guide farmers about the method of mixing and spraying the pesticide to avoid any mishaps. Moreover, posts of VAW sanctioned in Odisha being 3,218, only 2,320 are appointed, and most of whom are again posted as Panchayat Executives, who hardly come in contact with the farmers. In absence of a scientific system at the grassroots, farmers depend on the seller or shopkeeper for prescription of a pesticide. And, a trader is concerned about his gain only.
Such a thing happened with the cotton growers of Patnagarh, Belpada, Turekela and Bongomunda blocks of Bolangir district in 1996-97. Seeds were supplied by OSSC. But despite luxuriant growth of cotton plants, they did not flower in the prescribed time of 35days. There was panic among the cotton farmers. The loss farmers suffered thereby neither irked the Government, nor was their loss compensated. Not even the supplier of the seeds and the officials were taken to task. It was the farmers who suffered a financial setback alone for no fault of him.
Brunda’s second objection was he cried loudly about the massive loss of crops because of BPH attack which was neither sympathetically responded by the local administrative authorities nor by the Government. The Government in Odisha , it seems, is obstinately determined not to accept farmer’s suicide as the result of economic setback because of contiguous failure of crops and increasing loan burden thereby. Brunda, protesting loudly against the system and the apartheid attitude of the Government towards the farmers, finally committed suicide burning his paddy crop standing on the land. He is considered as a ‘Saheed’ by the farmers’ community which shouldn’t be undermined.
(The writer, a highly-educated farmer lives in Khari, Subarnapur. Mob: 7077982854)