Agriculture Crisis and Farmer Suicide in Orissa

Orissa, the 8^th largest State with respect to area and 11^th largest in terms of population occupies 4.74% of India’s landmass and accounts for 3.58% (2001, Census of India) of the country’s population with 87% of its population living in rural areas. About 50% of the people live below the poverty line as against the national figure of 26%.

Agriculture is the mainstay of Orissa’s economy providing livelihood support to more than 80% of population. The State comprises 4.74% of India’s landmass with total cultivable land of 61.80 lakh hectares of which only 25.20 lakh hectares under cultivation and 41.41 lakh hectares (around 67%) is in rainfed areas. Little more than 88% of the total workforce in the state are rural workers while 84% of the farming households having small and marginal land holdings. The State has all its districts coming under the rainfed regions. The distribution of rainfall is very uneven in terms of time and space. About 60% of the area receives an annual rainfall of no more than the normal of 1451.2 mm. The production potential of these areas is obviously quite limited. Rainfed areas also suffer from droughts almost in every year in the era of ‘changing climate’.

The agriculture sector contributes nearly 30% of the State’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs over 70% of the workforce. Out of the total population, 87% live in rural area depending heavily (nearly 73%) on agriculture for employment and sustenance. Marginal and small holders account for 83.8%. 49.7% of the people are BPL (Below Poverty Line) against 26.1% at the national level.

However, in spite of the large population relying upon agriculture, the growth rate in this sector has been consistently low during the last four decades, hovering around 1% per annum.^[1] There has been a steady decline in the new investment plan (plan outlay) made by the state government for agriculture and rural development since the official liberalization and opening up of markets began in 1991-92.  Moreover, the percentage outlay for the agriculture and allied sectors has increased during the 11^th Plan, against 1.26% allocation during 10^th Plan period, but still less in comparison to 9^th Plan (3.75%).^[2]

In recent times the emphasis is laid on 4% growth in agriculture during the 11^th Five Year Plan (2007-08 to 2011-12) Period. As a part of the strategy to achieve the stated target the recent Orissa State Agriculture policy 2008 (OSAP-2008), designed for the development of Agriculture Sector redefines the “development” in terms of economic development rather than sustainable food production. Thus stating a shift in approaches where food growing lands are increasingly converted to commercial crops driven by market forces. The area growing staple food crops (rice and millets) in the state has steadily been shrinking since 2003-04. However, the area under cash crops, e.g. cotton has been doubled during the same time line. According to Orissa Agricultural statistics[3], in between 2002-07, the area under rice has increased by 4%, under cotton by 106%, under floriculture by 800% and agro-fuels were grown in 20,000 hectares in 2007-2008. However, during the same period the area under millets has decreased by 22%. The high external input based ‘Green Revolution’ strategy also continuous in OSAP-2008 which suggests increasing the Seed Replacement Rate (SRR[4]) and the State has achieved 14% SRR in paddy till 2008-09.

The strategic approaches of Green Revolution have already shifted the multi-approach farming system with diverse crops to high external chemical input based mono-cropping system. The policy promises to encourage promotion of farm mechanization by offering a 50% subsidy on all agri-machineries, fertilizers and pesticides. According to the Economic survey of Government of Orissa, the fertilizer consumption has increased by 39%, pesticides by 66% and ground water for irrigation by 102% during the same period.

Farmers in Orissa are more dependent on the monsoon than others, thus more vulnerable to minimum weathered variation. For over a decade, Orissa has been teetering from one extreme weather condition to another: from heat-wave to cyclone, from drought to flood. The state has been declared disaster-affected for 95 years out of the last 105 years: floods have occurred for 50 years, droughts for 32, and cyclones have struck the state for 11 years[5]. The occurrence of drought has become a phenomenon in the State. During the 1950s, only three districts were drought-prone. By the 1980s, the whole of western Orissa, consisting of five districts, became drought-prone. During the 1990s, 25 of the 30 districts became drought-prone. The ‘usual rainy days’ is decreasing; there was poor rain during Kharif-2010, 17 districts out of 30 were declared as drought prone with an average crop loss up-to 70%[6] and the rain fall in the midst of winter i.e. December also ruined the remain harvest[7].

Decrease in farm biodiversity, inadequate food supply system, mono directional policy etc. are likely to make the livelihood systems extremely vulnerable and in turn assumes increase in trend of farmer suicide, conditions of indebtedness, hike in poverty level etc[8]. Degraded natural resources and unpredictable climatic conditions make both farming system and farming community further vulnerable. These have also shown adverse impact on the expenditure-saving and non-economic livelihood strategies of landless, marginal and small farmers such as food-fodder-firewood collection and gathering activities. This has severely affected the decline in the availability of the overall food sources and the food diversity. This rapid decline in farm productivity [food stuff (bio-mass) produced, gathered or collected from a unit land] has serious implications both for dry land farming as well as food security of the state. Today ‘seed replacement’ is being promoted as solution to hunger and nutrition deficiency. A number of indigenous cultivars being cultivated have been irretrievably lost and many are in the process by very limited varieties of genetically uniform semi-dwarf high yielding varieties along with hybrids and genetically modified (GM) crops and made skilled, self-driven farmers to highly depend upon external agencies which put farmer in a never-ending debt trap. This got reflected in the increase in the rural credit.

According to a report published by National Sample Survey Organization, Government of India in 2005, titled “Situation Assessment Survey-Indebtedness of Farmer Households”, 48% of farmer households in Orissa are indebted of which approx 70% have less than a hectare of land. According to report released by the State government, only 34% of total population in the state gets two square meals. The report on Global Hunger Index 2008[9] states that 13 out of 31 districts in the state have been categorized as Severely Food Insecure and 5 come under the Extremely Food Insecure. This hunger and starvation situation of the State ranks it to 6^th and 2^nd highest position in MMR and IMR respectively[10]. To count on more figures 45% of children under age five are stunted or too short for their age, 61% of women have anemia and two-thirds of expectant mother are anemic.[11] The per capita debt is raised to Rs 9316 in the state[12], but the actual figure estimates much higher than the declaration.

A farmer generally mortgage or sell their land to repay the loan amount, in turn loses control over the land and food system which leads to either migration (indicating the increase of current fallow by 158% and the Net shown area reduced by 11% in last fifteen years, between 1992-93 to 2007-08[13]) or suicide.

The government has not been hesitating in claiming ‘record production’ every other year. But in each of the years, ‘crop loss due to supply of fake or low-quality seed’ or ‘late supply of seed’ has been reported. Post harvest paddy procurement is an all-time issue among the farming community in the state. Distress sale of farm produces is another cause to farmer suicide. For the Khariff-2010, though the Government has declared Rs 1000/- and Rs 1020/- for normal and fine paddy respectively, but the actual price received by the farming community ranges between Rs 720/- to Rs 850/-[14]. Moreover, till date government has procured only 26% of the total produce and the rest has been procured by the private vendors. In addition, the ‘check’ system of payment for the produce has another cause that distresses the debt bound marginal-small community to approach the government.

A trend of debt bound farmer suicide cases has gradually emerged in the State; the Agriculture Minister has informed in the assembly session on 15^th February that Newspapers had covered as many as 64 alleged suicides by farmers during 2009-10 and till 10^th February of 2010-11. The Minister also counts that altogether 2,639 farmers had allegedly committed suicides from the year 2000. As per SCRB, between the year 2000 and 2008, more than 250 farmers took extreme steps every year in the State except 2000. From 2002 to 2004, number of such suicides crossed 300 in a year. Moreover, the actual estimation counts 73 numbers during the same period and still more heads are yet to count. However, the State Government has found no evidence of ‘agriculture failure' to be the reason behind farmers’ suicides in the State since the year 2000[15].

It is evident that many farmers who ended their lives had taken loans from cooperative societies, micro-finance organizations and even from money lenders. They were under pressure to pay back the loan amount. Activists say the crop loss due to drought during Kharif 2010 along with unseasonal rain in November and December 2010 had also led to spate of suicides of landless, marginal-small farmers’ in the State. While the government was taking steps to increase soil fertility, farm mechanization and irrigation facilities through bore-wells in hard-rock areas in 17 districts, added by the Agri-Minister. But, again it seems to create more vulnerable situation only rather than providing sustainable solutions to the small farm holders.

In such a situation, it is imperative to find ways and means to enable the farmers to assess their collective indigenous knowledge and resource base, establish their rights over it, and find avenues to use it more productively improving the quality of their own lives.

Thus, it demands to analyze the situation of farmer suicides through actual estimation of the factors that regulate/control the ‘farm-family economy’ of landless, marginal and small land holders. It pushes a study, involving the community very directly will possibly explore an analytic critic regarding the complex situation of loss of livelihood opportunity, food crisis and farmer suicide.

Hence, this is the need to expose the system that contributes towards destabilization of farming system approach resulting in food crisis and in turn enhance hunger-poverty-migration and social-economical-environmental imbalance pushing the farmers towards such extreme steps.

---

[1] Mamta Swain, Performance of Agriculture in Orissa, Inter-temporal and Spatial Variations, Orissa Development Report, Planning Commission, India, 2005.

[2] Annual Plan 2008-09, Orissa

[3] An annual publication brought out by the Department of Agriculture, Government of Orissa.

[4] SRR refers to the percentage of area under a specific crop in which improved / certified seeds are used replacing the traditional seed varieties in a given crop season in order to increase the productivity.

[5] www.infochangeindia.org

[6] As answered by Agriculture Minister on 10th December in Assembly session.

[7] The state has received 5 to 93.6 mm rain during 6th-10th December 2010 leading to huge crop loss, as answered by Agriculture Minister on 10th December in Assembly session.

[8] Suresh Tendulkar report on Poverty Estimation says that in Orissa, 57.2% of population lives under poverty, a 15% hike over the estimation: http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?670861

[9] The report is released by Food Security Outcome Index (FSOI) & Health indicators published by the Institute for Human Development and UN World Food Programme.

[10] SRS 2004-2006 & SRS Bulletin, Vol-44 N0.1, October 2009.

[11] National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2005-06, Government of India

[12] As answered by Finance Minister on 6th December 2010 in Assembly questionnaire session

[13] Economic Survey 2007-08, Directorate of Economics & Statistics, Bhubaneswar, Govt. of Orissa

[14] A survey made in Southern Rayagada, Eastern Nayagarh and Western Baragarh district of Odisha

[15] State finds no evidence of ‘farm failure' behind farmers' suicides: Satyasundar Barik; http://www.hindu.com/2011/02/16/stories/2011021661310300.htm

Innocent past, present thinking and future politics

The simple act of saving seeds has lately become an extremely important one.
Unprecedented changes are going on in the world of seeds. Corporate mergers of seed growers have accelerated at such a pace that there are now only a few giant rulers. Patented seeds have become common in catalogues. Millions of acres of farmland are being planted with bioengineered seeds i.e. the transgenic seeds or GM seeds in the name of eradicating poverty and ensuring food scarcity.

Certain transnational and multinational corporations have openly declared their intention of gaining total control of the world’s food supply. As things now stand they are not far from doing so. Farmers are being taken to court for saving seed. Plants that have always belonged to everyone are now “owned” by corporations through a simple term “patent”, which is still a fog for growers.

It has become almost impossible to find food products in North America and few European countries that are not derived from genetically modified seeds which in turn transported to India by the TNCs few years ago. But now we are competing with them in the name of development. The opening of various food malls in Orissa, which sell imported processed foods and foodstuff prepared by MNCs, is an open invitation to genetically modified food to our native.

The simple, saveable seeds that are part of ten thousand years of agricultural tradition are threatened with extinction. There is everything right with these seeds and they are all we need to grow healthy food. If we don’t continue to use these seeds we will lose them forever.

The pollution of seeds, our forever friends, represents to more and more people the very last straw. You can’t find pure water anymore, can’t breathe clean air, and now our daily meals are being contaminated beyond belief. The notion of tinkering with genes from totally different species and mixing them up in our food (i.e. GM food), with no testing, no consultation and no notification is alerting people to the fact that corporations are out of control as the all regulatory authorities have sold themselves.

Genetically altered foods are being foisted on us by so-called life sciences companies, organisations as well as our research institutes in the name of poverty, scarcity, health, safety and humanitarianism while in reality they are an experiment with potentially deadly consequences.

Terminator seeds are part of the arsenal of these same corporations that are promising us hope for the future. They more transparently reveal the name of the game to be profit and control. Such seeds especially threaten the livelihoods of “third world” farmers (usually women) who have traditionally saved their own seed. That minds would design seeds to terminate themselves is incomprehensible to most people. A perusal of the histories of some of these same transnational corporations is quite scary: they are manufacturers of the most virulent poisons (the deadly agro-chemicals) used in warfare.

The issue of seeds has the potential to be a very big wake-up call. The confused mindset that blasts foreign genes into seeds, that patents seeds, that kills seeds, is clearly one that would destroy the very “culture” that feeds us, the agriculture- the food and feed system.

Seeds remind us, if we but hold them in our hands, that we are a lot bigger than our current preoccupations. Rice, wheat, ragi as well as a lot of vegetable seeds got here because countless other people held them in their hands. They got here in a dance of people and earth that will only go on if both partners are honoured. They got here not by diminishing life but by letting life live.

We got here the same way. We got here because life keeps producing more diverse and divine expressions of herself, not reducing herself to sameness and certainty.

An agriculture that becomes a monoculture cannot work for very long. Now soil has eroded and becoming senseless, the “biodiversity” is gone, water is empty, the air is black, the weather is unpredictable and then life, where the sustainability is!

The transnational corporations that are cramming their gene-altered crops down our throats are doing so with the same arrogance and ignorance they’ve shown during the past fifty years of industrial agriculture. Creating transgenic crops is an extreme extension of the belief that we can totally control nature and get away with it. But the writing on the wall has become more and more underlined for anyone who looks at the current state of our environment. It has quickly become obvious that genetically manipulating crops is the same bad science as breeding crops that only grow well with the constant application of chemicals.

Already 90 per cent of biotech firms have gone bankrupt. Most major bioengineered crops have bombed too, including transgenic rice, maize, corn, sugarcane, cotton, tomato, brinjal, cauliflower, cabbage, groundnut, okra, potato, mustard, chickpea, sorghum, black gram, chilli, watermelon, coffee, banana, soybean etc. Moreover GM food products are also available abroad with brands from Crisco®, Kraft® salad dressings, Nestle® chocolate, Green Giant harvest burgers®, Parkay® margarine, Wesson® vegetable oils, and McDonald's Corporation. The makers of Isomil®, Enfamil®, and Prosobee® infant formulas have also verified that genetically engineered crop ingredients are incorporated into their products.

The largest corporations remain and have so much money they can say and do anything. Will we soon have only the corporate-created food? And if that time comes how much will that food cost us? And do we have the answer...!

Who is saying what we can do instead? We don’t have a high proportion of people who really care about their food. Most people don’t even know where their food comes from or how it is produced. We don’t even have many farmers left who know that you can’t farm from the top floor of a corporate office tower.

Can we stop buying into processes and products that are designed only to make money? Fortunately, everything is changing as fast as today’s weather. New ways of looking at things are starting to make sense. Why should food be so wrapped up by money? There is already a vast surplus of whole grains and beans being grown in our country. Why shouldn’t food be a right instead of a privilege? Couldn’t we all be well fed?

Why not awaken people what’s happening around...why not encourage people to have a gifted livelihood by farming the richness of the earth...to live on the land and derive satisfaction and fulfilment of all desires from the infinite-incredible beauty and entertainment of nature without disturbing it? ...and start to realize, as well, the vast potential for growing food within our urban environments?

What about the most radical idea of all that’s starting to germinate? The Earth is pretty messed up these days but it’s still likely the most incredible place in the Universe. Why should the minute proportion of people have all the power and resources? Why don’t we go for it and try to use all our skills for mutual benefit? Why don’t we create a place where all life is honoured and cherished?

Seeds are perhaps the most potent beginning point we’ve got right now. They have the power to provide the basics of life i.e. food, cloth and shelter. They have the power and potential to clean our air and water. The threat of their extermination must rally us to their protection, preservation, multiplication and enhancement. For seeds to remain public treasure, we must embrace them and create agendas for them that are people-oriented rather than power-oriented.

The great news is that normal seeds are easy and fun to save. Our remaining stock of open-pollinated seeds can be perpetuated without any special knowledge, equipment or resources. By becoming responsible for seed saving instead of depending on governments or seed companies and being trapped by them, we can help save ourselves. When the powers-that-be bite the dust, we will be sustaining the good earth, our mother...

Hence, friends come…join hands…
Let’s start “Act for Planet”

Pesticides in Western Odisha: An Observation

An Overview
It was during the third five year (1961-1966) plan of India when the investment on ‘agriculture’ as a sector was stressed upon, in view of the need of an abundance of wheat and rice. The Sino-Indian war situation had led to inflation and the GDP fell to 2.7 %. In a bid to boost the economy industries, including fertiliser units, came up. The sixth plan (1980-1985) onwards industrial development was stressed upon leading to the beginning of economic liberalisation and an increase in food prices.

In the period of 1989-2002 industrial development was looked upon as a way to economic reforms. But, at the same time increasing poverty also became a concern with the reducing per capita income. As an impact, Orissa, the state of agrarian-culture, rich with traditional knowledge and wisdom on farming and natural resource management had a different story to tell.

The investment on agriculture in the State was reduced from 8.29% of the total state budget in 1992-1997 to 6.14% in 2002-2007. Similarly, the investment on rural development reduced from 10.68% of the total state budget in 1992-1997 to 4.73% in 2002-2007. Subsidies on chemical fertilisers and pesticides have increased many folds. The annual report of the State showed an increase in the consumption of chemical fertilisers from 41kgs per hectare to 53.2 kgs within a period of 2001 to 2007. Similarly, chemical pesticides has also showed the same trend of increase from a consumption quantity of 757 kgs/ha to 812 kgs/ha over a period of 6 years from 2001 to 2007. Added to that the crop loans disbursed to farmers have increased from Rs.754 Cr (in Indian currency) in the year 2001-02 to Rs.2494 Cr in 06-07 (1942 Cr till December of 07-08) in the State. At present, Orissa is being promoted as an Organic State by default, but the increased consumption of chemical fertiliser and pesticide shows that the promotion is definitely without any proof.

The increasing trend of loans definitely reflects an increase in farm input cost and debt on farmers. The report published by National Sample Survey Organization, Government of India in 2005 titled “Situation Assessment Survey – Indebtedness of Farmer Households” says that 47.8% of farmer households in Orissa are indebted. Given such a situation where 83% of the farming communities are small and marginal farmers with 1.25 ha land as an average size of landholding. The increasing debt and increasing chemical inputs poses a real time question on the development initiatives taken by Govt. The Govt. departments have themselves affirmed that the “effects of over usage of chemicals on soil results in soil health deterioration, human health hazards and pollution of the environment”. Impact of chemical pesticides over a time has not remained undercover anymore.

Chemical pesticides have diverse impact on the ecosystem that disturbs the food-link system. The chemical corporations are one of the major factors behind existence of strong pesticide networks even in the extreme corners of the villages. Even with the growing incidences of human poisoning due to chemical pesticides, the multi billion industry with its strong network has succeeded in making farmers believe that chemical fertilizer and pesticides inputs are inevitable for survival. The statistics from National Crime Records Bureau states that out the total cases of suicides happened in the year 2007, 41.8% happened due to consumption of insecticides. Within a time period from 2005-07 according to the National figure, the percentage of other poisons used as a means adopted for committing suicide has reduced from 16.8% to 15%. In comparison the usage of insecticide has increased from 19.6%-19.7%. This reflects that it is not only the powerful industries that makes presence of the chemical stronger but also its handling & storage at the HH level that increases the factor of vulnerability all the more towards human health.

A View from Western Orissa
Bargarh is located in the western most part of the State, may be the first ever victim of Green Revolution. Previewing the history of the district, the planes had a soil type which is best suited for rice cultivation and indeed the primary crops of the district is paddy. It is also said that the type of soil existing in the planes which is a mix of sand and clay harbours less pests. But, increased doses of chemical inputs (in the name of higher productivity) have not only decreased the fertility of the soil but have also invited the pest population* and then the new generations of secondary pests. Presence of active dealers of pesticides and also introduction of high yielding varieties of rice and vegetables has led to increased use of pesticides and rise in frequency of exposure. This has further led to decrease in-farm diversity and loss of local knowledge system to deal with diseases and pests. A group of farmers in Nuapalli village told at least 16 varieties[1] of farm-fishes have died out due to use of pesticides in farm lands. Farmers in return got deskilled and their dependency on the chemical inputs has increased further. Along with the diversity of farmland, the biodiversity of the periphery is also affected. This includes the disappearance of natural pollinators and the natural prey-predator relationship that helped in building ecological balance. Along with this the net profit from crop production is also decreasing.

In Bhutibahal GP, where the discussion had been conducted with the farmers, revealed that out of a sample of 18 farmers in one village, more than 70% have shown symptoms of mild hazards due to impact of pesticide spray. The village is a paddy grower’s village and in the Panchayat (including the village) organo-chlorine, organophosphate and carbamate are the primary groups of insecticides used in paddy and other vegetables. Vegetables like brinjal (egg plant), cabbage and chilli are mostly cultivated for cash. Endosulfan and Monochrotophos (belongs to the organophosphate class) are highly used pesticides which are classified under WHO Class-1a and WHO Class-1b hazardous pesticides respectively. The spraying time is normally between 7 AM to 11 AM which is considered as a risk period in a day for spraying. Most pollinators are found in the cool sun light especially in the morning time when the pesticide spray is being taken place. Round the year at an average if calculated once a week would be the frequency of spray. If 2 acres are the average land holding then the farmer is exposed to 5-8 tanks of spray i.e. 75 litres to 120 litres of water with 150 ml of endosulfan every week. Every frequency of spray takes 3 days of time for completion. This accounts to 156 days of risk exposure of pesticide every year. And tracing back the history of pesticide used, especially endosulfan is being used for last 10 years in the village according to a village elderly farmer. It raises serious concerns for the upcoming escalation of health hazards in the area and the depleting biodiversity. There have been already reports of women having multiple abortions, sterility and other gynaecological disorders. Also, with the recent ban on monochrotophos by CIB in the neighbouring State, Andhra Pradesh and already established impacts of endosulfan in Kerala, there is a need to visualise the dangers towards its usage, storage and promotion more critically.

Given such vulnerabilities where women and children become even more susceptible, there is a need for farmers to identify the extent of toxicity due to these groups of pesticides. It is also important for them to recognise its visible impacts on their health and find out an alternative to farming system without the use of chemical inputs.

We intend to make an attempt to identify and regulate norms of usage, storage, disposal of pesticides with farmers doing paddy cultivation as their primary crop and also recognise symptoms of pesticide poisoning. In the process, farmers would explore their existing traditional pest management knowledge systems and will try to establish solutions to the chemicalness in the farm lands by adopting environment friendly agrarian technology.

*Plant consumes more nutrients available in ready-made form in the chemical fertilizers and grows faster. Thus, due to more starch matter in the plant, the plant looks more dense green and for the insect’s vision more deep which in turn invites the pest. Hence, the chemical fertilizer exposure increases the insect instances and then pesticide uses.
[1] Varieties of farm fish (Bargarh Dist, Nuapali Village): "Dalia", "Bainri","Kharasa","Jia Macha","Seula", "Thuru","Tengini", "Kuturi,"Dandia", "jhein","Jasa/Dasa","Madrel", "darata/baranda","singhi", "desi magura".