THE VIDARBHA
COTTON WIDOWS
Sanjay Maruti Jungare, 35
Antargoan Village
Sanjay committed suicide in 2007. He came home, watched TV, and then drank pesticide. He had fallen into debt after switching to GM (genetically modified) Bt cotton. The Vidarbha region accounts for the highest growth in GM cotton in India. It also has the highest rates of farmer's suicides. His wife, Nirmala, is still waiting to hear if she will receive compensation from the Indian government.
Vinod Rathod, 40
Bothodan Village
Vinod was an experienced farmer with a successful farm growing hybrid (non - GM) cotton. When other farmers in the area started planting Bt seeds a new disease spread to his field. He had no idea how to treat it so he borrowed money to buy more seeds. In 2003 the crop failed again and he committed suicide. His widow, Mrs. Rathod looks after their five children on an income of around 40 rupees (50p) a day.
Rajkumar V. Rathod, 17
Rajkumar's father killed himself when he was 11 years old. He says he feels ashamed but he understands why he did it, 'It's not easy for a farmer here. He has to get a loan and if he cannot repay, he will commit suicide.' Rajkumar gets up at 5.30 to walk to a school where he studies history and Marati: 'I want to be a teacher, I want to do something for my mother and my family's reputation.'
Anil Datar, 47
Rani Amravati
Anil took poison at home. He had borrowed money from private moneylenders and 20,000 rupees from relatives. His wife, Sarla, struggles to feed their three children: 'I have had no compensation from the government. At the moment there is no work in the fields, if there was work the fields I would do it. The problem is that we don’t have an irrigation system. We hardly have any water.'
Santosh V. Dhoti, 30
Panchghavan Village
Enticed by free seed trials, Santosh began growing Bt cotton in 2005. A year later he took his own life. He owed more than 50,000 rupees to the Yavatmal Corporate Bank. When prices fluctuate, Indian cotton farmers find it difficult to compete with their heavily subsidized US and European counterparts; many find themselves in debt. Santosh's wife, Manda, and their two daughters, are all unemployed.
Gautum Jadhav, 46
Rani Amravati Village
Monsanto Bt cotton is four times more expensive than conventional cotton seeds. It contains a gene that prevents the seeds produced from being harvested and re-sown every season. Gautum Jadhav jumped into a well because he was unable to pay back moneylenders the 4,000 rupees he borrowed for new seeds. His widow, Sangeeta, earns 30 rupees (40p) a day in a neighbouring field. She worries that their son will be unable to find work.
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Govind had not grown anything in the three years preceding his death. Like many farmers he had been attracted to Bt cotton by adverts promising a higher yield with less need for pesticide. The billboard outside his village reads: 'Spray Less, Profit More - Monsanto Seeds.' Farmers are not warned that these plants require more water and fertilizer than ordinary cotton. The crops often fail because of a lack of irrigation.
Dhyaneshwar K. Makeshwar, 25
Fale Goan Village
Dhyaneshwar was engaged to marry when he took out a loan to buy new GM seeds. Small cotton farmers can be highly dependent on the monsoons. If the monsoons don't come, the crop may be ruined. A bad harvest meant that Dhyaneshwar could not pay back the interest on his debt. He drank poison in January 2008. His fiancée's brother, Bhaskar, now runs the farm. He hopes to install an irrigation system.
His brother Mr. K. Makeshwar, 27
Water is an expensive commodity in the Vidarbha region. Declining state investment in canals and infrastructure has seen a rise in the number of privately owned wells, depleting ground water, and a dramatic increase in costs. Nandkishore lost his harvest in 2006 because he could not afford enough water to grow GM cotton. His brother, Laxmi, received 20,000 rupees compensation when Nandkishore died. He used the money to switch to growing soybeans.
Nandkishore S. Funde, 25
Rani Amravati Village
Water is an expensive commodity in the Vidarbha region. Declining state investment in canals and infrastructure has seen a rise in the number of privately owned wells, depleting ground water, and a dramatic increase in costs. Nandkishore lost his harvest in 2006 because he could not afford enough water to grow GM cotton. His brother, Laxmi, received 20,000 rupees compensation when Nandkishore died. He used the money to switch to growing soybeans.
Devidas Kinake, 45
Icchora Village
Devindas drank insecticide in his field because he couldn't face mounting debts and he was afraid he would lose the farm. His widow, Wachala, worries that their two daughters may never marry; such is the stigma cast upon the family by her husband's death. ‘My boy should be happy and working in the field. My daughters should be married. Instead I must borrow from shops to feed them.’
Govind S. Nikore, 45
Kotha Village
India is the second largest cotton producer in the world (after China) and agriculture employs up to three - fifths of the working population. Despite this, many banks have begun closing their rural branches, and farmers find it increasingly difficult to obtain credit. Govind hanged himself in 2007 because he owed 50,000 rupees to private moneylenders. His wife, Manda, says she blames Monsanto, for selling him seeds he could not grow.
Nandabai L. Hatwar, 40 and Laxman V. Hatwar, 45
Veni Village
Sangeeta’s parents both killed themselves on the third of October 2006, when she was fourteen. They took poison because they were in debt. Since then she has been responsible for the farm, her three younger brothers and her elderly grandmother. She says she has not applied for compensation because she doesn’t understand the procedure. Sangeeta earns 30 rupees (40p) a day, working in the fields, and often has to borrow more from moneylenders: ‘I must pay for my brothers’ school fees, I want them to complete their studies. I cannot leave and get married, I have to care for them.’
PHOTOGRAPHY
Verena Hanschke
and Floriana Gavriel
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ESSAY
SRIJIT MISHRA
–
Reasearcher on development related issues,
Teacher at the Indira Gandhi Institute of
Development Research
Mumbai
–
Srijit Mishra prepared this essay for the Vidarbha Cotton
Widows project. The author draws from his other recent
writings, the most recent being D. Narasimha Reddy
and Srijit Mishra [eds.] Agrarian Crisis In India, Oxford
University Press, New Delhi.
Between 1995 and 2007 more than 200,000 farmers committed suicide in India.
–
The figure could be much higher. In the absence of coroner's reports we have to rely on police records,
likely to be influenced by social stigma and legal sanctions. The suicide mortality rate (suicide
deaths per 100,000 persons) for male farmers increased from 10.5 to 18.2 (compared with an
increase from 12.4 to 14.1 in non-farmers). In the cotton growing belt of Western Vidarbha,
the epicenter of the farmer's suicides, the per annum rate has reached 110.
The increasing incidence of farmersÕ suicides in India is symptomatic of a larger socioeconomic
malaise. On the one hand, it is indicative of a broad crisis threatening the
livelihoods of many small farmers and agricultural workers; on the other hand, it signifies
over one and a half decades of state neglect.
Since the 1990s India's agricultural sector has suffered a decline in productivity.
Three fifths of India's workers are dependent on this sector while it contributes to only one fifth
of the national income. Estimates from a survey in 2003 indicate that the per capita per day
return from cultivation is now less than eight Indian rupees (10 pence). The same survey
revealed that nearly half of India's farmers wish to leave the profession, deeming
it unprofitable.
Farmers experience many pressures. There has been a decline in public investment in
irrigation (canals, tanks, etc) and an increase in private initiatives (wells, tubewells) that
have combined to deplete ground water and augment the debt burden as farmers become
increasingly reliant on non-institutional sources. In 1991 changes in banking policy led to
the closure of many rural branches and a decrease in the net share of credit available to
agriculture. Farmers have been forced to turn to moneylenders, the vast majority of whom
charge interest of more than 20 percent per annum.
Recent initiatives such as the doubling of credit, a moratorium and then a debt waiver
(an election year gimmick) have had little impact as they have failed to address this noninstitutional
debt.
The lacuna that still exists is the absence of a mechanism to deal with nonwilful
default by a farmer, either through credit guarantee or insurance.
The system seems to be geared to take the farmer into a vortex of debt.
With fiscal discipline impinging on the recruitment of extension workers (as well as
school teachers and health care providers) farming has become costly. There is an increasing
dependence on the market. The reliance on input providers has led to a supplier-induced
demand, and new inputs (say, genetically modified seeds) have rendered the farmer's
knowledge redundant. Skilled professionals have become unskilled workers.
Already exposed to the volatility of international prices (distorted by huge subsidies in the
US and Europe), shortages of water, debt and lack of credit, those farmers that are engaged
with reform, the risk-taking, enterprising farmers are being exposed to an even greater
vulnerability: spurious inputs, the inappropriate use of technology, uncertainty in the crop,
the product and the market.
Left with no alternatives, many farmers end up committing suicide. In my view, this is an
act of helplessness in a state of momentary despair: a call to society for help. Help not only
for the farmer's immediate family members - widowed wife, old and ailing parents, young
children, but also for farming in general and for other farmers, like him.