In France, a farmer dies by suicide every two days. In China, farmers are killing themselves to protest the government’s seizing of their land for urbanization. In Ireland, the number of suicides jumped following an unusually wet winter in 2012 that resulted in trouble growing hay for animal feed. In the U.K., the farmer suicide rate went up by 10 times during the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in 2001, when the government required farmers to slaughter their animals. And in Australia, the rate is at an all-time high following two years of drought
Lack of funding, Climate Change and high input (seeds, fertilizers and pesticides) costs – all contribute to the farmer suicides the world over. Suicides that are increasing every day!
Cotton has been grown in India for over 5000 years. India was the major center for cotton.
The real issue started when in the bid to increase production of cotton, Indian farmers went for hybrid seeds. These seeds needed more insecticides, pesticides and fertilizers. The pink bollworm, which wasn’t such a major threat until then, suddenly became a major scourge. With the chemicals accompanying the hybrid seeds, bollworm evolved and became more resistant.
That is where Monsanto entered with its bollworm-resistant Bt Cotton seeds. But this use of Bt Cotton created its own issues of a cycle of expensive components that needed proper irrigation and supplies.
Monsanto pushed its way into India despite the resistance. Today 95% of Indian cotton seeds are controlled by Monsanto.
Steps that need to be taken
- Create an alternative Seeds research program that is government backed and reasonable in cost
- Robust and reliable irrigation policy plus electrification of villages so water can reach smallest of farms
- Insurance against Crop failurethat is backed by the Government so it is reasonably priced.
- Easy access to funds – via bank accounts – for farmers to wean them away from local moneylenders
All these steps are important and critical if the menace of farmers suicides has to be tackled effectively. Remember, the idea is NOT to do lip-service, but to find a real, effective and permanent solution for the issues which prompt the farmers to commit suicide!
Steps taken by Modi Govt.
70% Cut in Monsanto’s Royalties: Modi government announced a 70% cut in the royalties that the local firms pay Monsanto for its cotton seeds. With such deep cut in its revenue – which Monsanto has been accused of jacking up due to its monopoly – Monsanto announced that it may leave the country and not sell its seeds in India anymore. To this, the Indian Minister of state for agriculture Sanjeev Kumar Balyan said that Monsanto was welcome to leave if it does not want to adhere to the lower prices (and stop indulging in price gouging) –
Government says India ‘not scared’ if Monsanto leaves. This comes from the confidence of the Indian government to create its own GMO seeds for cotton to rival Monsanto’s by early next year!
2 Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana: This is the national mission from PM Modi’s government to improve the irrigation in the country and enable the agriculture to become resistant to the vagaries of Indian monsoon. It is important to remember that climate vagaries in just 2014-15 led to 5.3% loss in foodgrain production and 0.2% loss in agricultural growth rate.
In the next 5 years, INR 50,000 crore from the central budget would be utilised for the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana. The contribution of the states will be over and above this.
The main focus of PMKSY will be (i) Micro-irrigation projects (“Har Khet Ko Pani”) and (ii) end-to-end irrigation solutions.
The PMKSY will also take up the irrigation projects that were started by previous government but either not implemented or poorly implemented. Actually, 1,300 watershed projects of the previous government will be completed.
The scheme will also provide Rs 200 crore earmarked as Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund (ATIF) – the corpus required to promote the National Agricultural Market (NAM) – which will give farmers easy access to the markets for sale of their produce.
The scheme will be monitored by a steering committee by PM Modi and ministers of Agriculture, Water Resources and Rural Development.
3 Pradhan Mantri Fasal Beema Yojna (Crop Insurance for Farmers): This is another major step that is needed to fight the issue of farmers suicide. There were crop insurance schemes earlier as well, but they fell short. Here are some of the major features of the crop insurance scheme brought about by PM Narendra Modi:
- The premium rate paid by the farmer will be to a maximum of 2% of the sum insured (rest being paid by the State and Central Government). Specifically, 2% of the sum insured as premium for kharif crops and 1.5% for rabi crops. In the previous scheme, the rates were as high as 4-15%!
- Until now, the government only provided relief. But this new scheme will provide compensation for the losses incurred by the farmer. In fact, the scheme will go beyond the usual norms of such insurance schemes and even compensate for loss of seed plants and post-harvest damage! In a bid to improve the assessment of the calamities (hailstorms, unseasonal rains, landslides and inundation). To speed up the settlement of claims, estimate losses, and assess compensation the government will use smartphones, remote-sensing data and even drones to assess crop damage!
- The scheme will give an immediate payment of 25% of the due compensation to the farmers directly into their bank accounts. Anyone who knows the level of corruption knows that the babus distributing the funds from Government relief pocket majority of it. That isn’t an issue thanks to the Jan Dhan yojana’s success!
- The previous crop insurance schemes have a 23% cover. The aim of the new scheme is to get to 50% cover.
- The Scheme will become applicable from the Kharif crop of 2016.
4 Relief to Farmers in Input Subsidy: In 2015, PM Narendra Modi announced that farmers will now be eligible for input subsidy if
33 per cent of their crop has been damaged, as opposed to 50 percent or more, which was the norm till now.Further, the
input subsidy given to distressed farmers will be enhanced by 50 per cent of the existing amounts. PM said that
“This is a major departure from the incremental changes in input subsidy that have been made hitherto”.
5 Soil Health Card: Under this scheme launched by PM Modi in 2015, government issues soil cards to farmers which carry crop-wise recommendations of nutrients and fertilizers required for the individual farms to help farmers to improve productivity through proper use of inputs. The soil testing labs across the country will test the soil samples and give the results which will be added to a farmer’s Soil Health Card. You can check the progress of the scheme
from its site by downloading the
excel sheet with the latest information. A total of 14,752,382
(147.5 crore) SHCs have been issues in the country by 29th March 2016!
Sangh is also doing its bit
While the Modi government is working through the governmental framework, policies and machinery to set right the things that have until now contributed to the enormous numbers of farmer suicides, the farmer union associated with the RSS is also doing its bit to take the fight to corporate seed monopolies like Monsanto. In an interesting article titled –
How Monsanto found an able adversary in the Sangh parivaar – Economic Times details out how the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh is fighting the agricultural Goliath Monsanto!
The compete answer had been taken from an article at
Drishtikone
This is not my area of expertise, but after reading your question i searched online & found this article as very informative so thought of sharing it in part.
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