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By Freny Manecksha Lured by the promises of seed merchants, Gajanand Dhapse of Kathoda village in Yavatmal cultivated Bt cotton on his 10 acres. His input costs soared, yields dropped, even as the minimum support price dropped. Dhapse is one of hundreds of farmers in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region who are experiencing the devastating effects of degraded lands, unsuitable cropping patterns, and lack of accurate information and institutional credit
Subhash Sharma, who owns 32 acres of land just outside Yavatmal town in Yavatmal district, Vidarbha, has taken up an interesting experiment. A team from the Dushkaal Hatawu, Manoos Jagawu padayatra (a two-month-long padayatra that set out to examine drought-related issues in Marathwada and Vidarbha) visited the farm and spoke with Sharma who explained how, in a region that experiences acute water shortage and extreme temperatures, he had returned to organic farming. He now uses innovative natural methods to farm his land. Like hundreds of other farmers, Sharma used chemical fertiliser and pesticides until the 1990s. Then, in the late-’90s, he began experimenting with organic farming on half his land. In 2000, he converted completely and decided to work with nature -- not against it. He planted trees and employed measures to stop soil erosion. Estimating that in one monsoon season he could lose almost 15 tonnes of soil per acre, he began to carry out contour farming that helped soak up most of the water and halt the soil erosion. For the primary cash crop -- cotton -- Sharma advocates inter-cropping to prevent pest attacks that have harmed cotton yields in this region for years. Sharma is an enlightened man with the vision and ability to take a holistic and long-term view. Sadly, he is the exception in a region where the land has been badly degraded and cropping patterns have gone completely askew. The agricultural crisis is so severe that some have even taken their own lives: there have been over 300 suicides to date in the six Maharashtra districts of Amravati, Yavatmal, Wardha, Vashim, Akola and Buldhana. Ironically, it was the Green Revolution that first sowed the seeds of this disaster, explains Kaustubh Devle of GreenEarth Social Development Consulting, a collaborating organisation of the Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) Programme, which has promoted and supported the padayatra. The need for increased output in a region where there is a noticeable absence of irrigation and sustainable harnessing of water placed an over-dependence on high-yielding varieties of seeds, chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Initially yields were high, making the exercise lucrative for farmers. But the subsequent drop in soil quality necessitated more and more use of fertiliser, until it reached a saturation point in the ’90s. Now, farmers are faced with seriously declining land productivity. The problem worsens as farmers work in the unorganised sector, with no access to accurate information on how to handle fertilisers and what pesticides to use. They depend on representatives from seed, fertiliser and pesticide companies, many of whom create the illusion of prosperity and encourage small-time farmers to take serious risks in terms of fertiliser-based cropping. The tendency to grow commercial cash crops (in this region it is primarily cotton) grew in the late-’80s. A report by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) on the causes of suicide among cotton farmers, in response to a high court directive, notes that the tendency to grow cash crops is not limited to big and medium-sized landholders. Even landless and small landholders have been acquiring land on lease to grow cash crops, as it has become no longer possible for them to meet their daily living costs from food crops alone. In the case of cotton, the genetically-engineered Bt variety has added to the crisis. Gajanand Dhapse of Kathoda village in Arni taluka, in Yavatmal -- one of the districts with the highest number of farmer suicides -- was lured by representatives of a firm (a tie-up between Monsanto and the government-controlled Mahabeej) to grow Bt cotton on his 10-acre farm. The sample plot he was shown had produced a high yield, but Dhapse’s own experience was not so fortunate. He got at least three quintals less than the previous year when he had sowed the local variety. The crop being cotton, in particular Bt cotton, meant that his inputs were high. Low cotton yields and this year’s common minimum price have not been able to match his inputs. Dhapse recalls how representatives of Bt cotton hosted seminars at hotels in various towns for the farmers and distributed audio-cassettes. But there was no proper dissemination of information and, sadly, neither did the farmers demand these technical inputs. According to Dhapse, there have even been instances of unscrupulous agents selling fake seeds and passing them off as Bt seeds. Farmers who have been duped have no recourse to any organised consumers forum that can take up their cause. Bipin Ahir, who was part of GreenEarth’s assessment teams in the villages, explains how farming itself has become a largely unorganised sector. He points out how there is still no proper information in the villages about Bt cotton. Farmers often ask for the simple Banni variety when they are expecting Bt. And they have no information on how the Bt cotton is to be grown. Bt cotton, for example, requires a fence of legumes around the crop so that the biomass can be used to naturally fertilise the fields. Intercropping with zhendu flowers or tur (a legume) also helps fend off pest attacks, as Sharma has observed. In the absence of sound technical advice, farmers use fungicides and pesticides indiscriminately, without even testing the soil conditions, says Ahir. This has wreaked havoc on the land. Ahir points out that agricultural universities tend to function in a vacuum with no linkage between what is taught in the universities and the technical inputs given to farmers. Most agricultural universities have a 200-acre farm where they grow crops, but their experience and knowledge does not go beyond the boundaries of this farm. And there have been no attempts at social mobilisation of farmers. In contrast, farmers who have stuck with traditional methods and relied on experience, intercropping cotton with tur or hybrid jowar, are a little better off because natural seeds are more resistant to pest attacks, says Chandrakant Deokar, an agricultural associate at GreenEarth. Ahir believes that had farmers been taught to keep simple accounts and tabulate their production costs they would have better understood the economics of the situation and noted the decline in soil fertility over the years. The Planning Commission has decided to make an on-the-spot assessment of the situation and is visiting the affected districts in Maharashtra. While the focus will be on the Rs 1,075 crore relief package, what’s more important is the need to see the farmer suicides as symptomatic of a very grave agrarian crisis in a country where over 70% of the population is rural-based. As the TISS study says in its recommendations, there is an urgent need for the government to re-examine its domestic policies on agriculture which should be “calibrated to diversify cropping/activity patterns in line with domestic and external demands”.
(Freny Manecksha is an independent journalist based in Mumbai) InfoChange News & Features, March 2006
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