BENGALURU: In the five months between April 1 and August 31, at least one farmer committed suicide every 12 hours in
Karnataka, notwithstanding various efforts by the state to address issues causing
agrarian distress.
Barring
Bengaluru Urban, all other districts reported farmer suicides during this period.
According to the agriculture department, 283 farmer suicides were reported during this time, with the northern and central districts affected the most. June recorded the highest, followed by May, while August saw the least. The figures for September will be available by the month-end. While welcoming the loan waivers from the present and past governments, farmer leaders argued that a holistic approach that will lead to policies enabling farmers to increase their income should be the focus.
As of December 31, 2017, the collective debt of farmers was about 10% of Karnataka’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) in 2017-18 and 57% of the budget outlay for 2018-19, indicating the severity of the crisis. According to data obtained from the State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC), about 85 lakh farmers’ accounts have a debt of over Rs 1.2 lakh crore in agriculture loans to 45 banks.
C Kumari, a farmer leader from Mandya, where a farmer and his family committed suicide last week, said: “The Centre should completely waive the existing loans. If it can write off large debts taken by rich companies, why can’t it do that for farmers? We’ve been demanding implementation of the Swaminathan Committee report.”
The report had recommended that the minimum support price (MSP) must be 1.5 times that of the overall input cost. “They are just refusing to do this. While they said they increased the MSP, it’s nothing close to what the report recommends,” said Maruti Manpade, a farmer leader from north Karnataka.
Among the worst-hit districts are Belagavi which lost 34 farmers, followed by Vijayapura (21), Kalaburgi (19), Haveri (18), while both Dharwad and Chikkamagaluru lost 17 farmers each.
(Picture used for representational purpose)
