Garlic glut leads to farmer suicides in agriculture belt

Like any day, Hukumchand Meena, 36, of Brij Nagar went to work in his fields on May 24 but he did not return. He consumed poison to end his life.

Garlic, which was sold for Rs 100 per kg till a couple of years ago, was the only hope for Meena to repay his Rs 25 lakh debt, including Rs 18 lakh loan on Kisan Credit Card. This year, however, garlic prices crashed to a low of Rs 5 per kg.

His younger brother, Anirudh (31), said Hukumchand has four daughters, a son and wife to look after and had cultivated garlic on around 3.25 hectare to repay his debts. “My brother had around 2.4 hectares of land. He had taken 9 hectares of land on lease for Rs 10,000 per beegha (one-sixth of a hectare). He had invested Rs 8 lakh on cultivation and could only recover just Rs 80,000 from selling garlic. So he killed himself,” said Anirudh.

Anirudh said that Hukumchand had also cultivated wheat and gram but he was banking on garlic to replay his loan, as garlic prices have been high in past few years. “Despite registering online for government purchase, Hukumchand did not get any message about government purchase of garlic. He was dejected and decided to end his life,” alleged Anirudh.

Hukumchand is not the only one to commit suicide because of falling garlic prices. Four more farmers have committed suicide in last two months in Hadauti region following a glut in garlic prices and failure of government purchase of garlic to provide relief to garlic farmers.

The other four farmers Revarilal of Atru (Baran), Lakshmichand Suman of Kajaliya village (Kota), Mahaveer Dhakar of Kishanganj (Baran), Chaturbhuj Meena of Kavai (Baran) committed suicide on April 19, April 23, May 8, May 23 and May 24 this year respectively.

Like Hukumchand, Lakshmichand (70) had Rs 8 lakh agricultural debt, Revarilal had Rs 3 lakh debt and Mahaveer had Rs 6 lakh debt. They all committed suicide after prices of garlic plummeted and they failed to repay their debts.

Lakshmichand’s son, Prem Narayan (32), said that his father was a landless farmer and had cultivated garlic on two beeghas of land (around one third of a hectare) which cost him Rs 60,000 but he got only Rs 600 per quintal. Broke, he consumed poison and killed himself.

“My father was also responsible for my family, as my three children, wife and I were living with him,” Prem. “Less rainfall forced us to buy water tankers for irrigation. Labour is also costly and so is transportation. So low prices of garlic prevented farmers from even recovering cost of cultivation,” he said.

Around half a dozen farmers have committed suicide in Hadauti region last year (2017) due to garlic glut.

Statements made by public representatives of the ruling party have augmented the anguish of farmers. Agriculture minister Prabhulal Saini has refused to admit that farmers have committed suicide due to low prices of garlic. Recently, BJP MLA from Sangod, Kota, Heeralal Nagar said that farmers are committing suicide to claim compensation.

Farmer organisations do not agree with such statements. Dashrath Kumar ????? said that “When the government has not paid any compensation to any of the aggrieved families of farmers, who have committed suicide, why are they saying that farmers are committing suicide for sake of compensation.”