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Experts feel that instead of putting a ceiling of landholdings it would be better to put a ceiling on the loan component of, say, up to Rs 50,000. For, there can be no comparison between a five acre rain-fed farmer in Vidarbha and a farmer of equal landholding with captive irrigation in western Maharashtra
Around 17.87 lakh farmers in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region will get Rs 2,027 crore, while farmers in comparatively prosperous areas like Pune and Nashik will corner close to 50% of the state’s share of Rs 11,456 crore from the central government’s Rs 60,000 crore farm loan waiver. Nearly 20 lakh farmers in western Maharashtra (Pune division) will receive Rs 4,043 crore, while 20.72 lakh farmers in the Marathwada region will get Rs 3,400 crore, 5.77 lakh farmers in north Maharashtra (Nashik division) Rs 1,762 crore, and 2.54 lakh farmers in Konkan Rs 224 crore, according to the latest figures worked out by the state cooperation department. Cooperation department officials clarified that Vidarbha’s share of Rs 2,027 crore excludes the Rs 852 crore interest waiver provided in the prime minister and chief minister’s packages. But the figures confirm what experts have been saying all along -- that farmers in crisis-ridden areas of Vidarbha’s cotton belt will get a raw deal in the loan waiver scheme. Maharashtra will corner more than a sixth of the Centre’s waiver scheme. The state has 1.21 crore agricultural landholders, of which 89 lakh have holdings of less than two hectares, according to data from the cooperation department. It says a total of 66.9 lakh farmers will benefit from the waiver scheme; 42.5 lakh of them will qualify for a complete waiver while the remaining 24.4 lakh (farmers with more than two hectares of land) will qualify for a one-time settlement. “The numbers don’t tell you the larger story,” says farm leader and agricultural expert Vijay Jawandhia. “The government must publish a white paper on how much relief of the loan waiver goes in to each taluka of the state.” Jawandhia feels that instead of putting a ceiling on landholdings, it would be better to put a ceiling on the loan component of, say, up to Rs 50,000. For there can be no comparison between a five acre rain-fed farmer in Vidarbha and a farmer of equal landholding with captive irrigation in western Maharashtra. “A typical five hectare farmer in Vidarbha with a burden of up to Rs 50,000 won’t qualify for a complete waiver, but a two hectare grape-grower in Nashik could end up getting a waiver of Rs 2.5 lakh,” says Jawandhia. Most beneficiaries in western and northern Maharashtra are sugarcane cultivators and grape-growers who get bigger loans from banks. Experts also point out various subsidies like one on canal irrigation, drip irrigation, power, fertilisers, etc. “Such farmers will benefit more from the loan waiver than the cotton farmers who are in real crisis,” says Jawandhia. What’s more, explains a senior officer of the State Bank of India, farmers in western and northern Maharashtra will qualify for bigger loans once they are debt-free, while cotton, soybean and paddy farmers in rain-fed areas of Vidarbha will continue to get meagre loans. Experts also point out that 54.1 lakh landholders outside the institutional credit net in the state don’t qualify for either of the two schemes, irrespective of their landholdings. And a good 15-17 lakh of these are in Vidarbha alone, where suicides continue unabated with as many as 20 reported within the past 72 hours. While the latest suicide, a 65-year-old farmer, was reported from Kondala village in eastern Vidarbha’s Chandrapur district, on April 12, 18 of the 20 suicides occurred in the region’s western part, comprising Yavatmal, Amravati, Buldhana, Akola and Washim districts. The Kondala farmer, Rambhau Kale, had taken loans amounting to Rs 95,000 from two banks -- the district cooperative bank and land development bank -- besides borrowing from relatives. Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) president Kishor Tiwari says Rambhau owned 10 acres of arid land and, therefore, was not eligible for the loan waiver, which is applicable only to farmers owning up to five acres. “The optimism expressed by political leaders in the state including Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh that the five acre cap would be raised to 15 acres for non-irrigated regions to cover farmers like him apparently didn’t boost Rambhau’s morale,” says Tiwari. Another baffling suicide in Vidarbha was that of Babanrao Jeughale of Varvand village in Buldhana district who jumped onto a burning haystack. The son of a former moneylender, 48-year-old Jeughale had sold four acres of land two years ago to raise money for his daughter’s wedding. His younger brother Dattatraya said: “Babanrao’s second daughter is now marriageable and the prospect of having to sell off another chunk of land for her wedding left him dejected.” With a bank loan of over Rs 40,000, the farmer had yet another worry -- how to raise money to pay a donation for his HSC-pass third daughter’s admission to a DEd (Diploma in Education) college. If he didn’t manage, her education would be at an end, his brother said. Tiwari says the 20 recent suicides have taken the death toll in Vidarbha, since the announcement of the Union budget, to 116; and since January 1 this year to 282. The VJAS leader adds that even after raising the five acre landholding cap, the loan waiver will not in itself end the complex agrarian crisis. “Farmers, particularly the cotton cultivators in Vidarbha, must get remunerative prices for their produce. Also, a regulatory mechanism to reduce their input costs must be devised,” he says. The kharif season starts with the southwest monsoon, in June, when Vidarbha’s cotton farmers, who depend entirely on the rains for water, require hard cash in hand. Many end up at the moneylender’s door when they do not have the money to buy seeds and fertiliser for farming. Only 3% of Vidarbha has irrigated farming, the rest depend on the monsoon. Source: DNA, April 14, 2008
The Economic Times, April 14, 2008
IANS, April 14, 2008
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