Experts team says crop loss not to blame alone

An experts' committee headed by former member of the state Agricultural Commission G.K. Veeresh, which recently submitted a ‘‘scie...

An experts’ committee headed by former member of the state Agricultural Commission G.K. Veeresh, which recently submitted a ‘‘scientific analysis’’ of farmers’ suicides in Karnataka, created an uproar with its ‘‘findings’’ that it was not just crop loss that led farmers into taking the extreme step, but also alcoholism and socio-economic compulsions.

While farmers’ organisations and the Opposition demanded that the state government withdraw the controversial report, the Opposition leader in the Legislative Council K.H. Srinivas dramatically threw a copy of the report into the nearest dust-bin.

But what Srinivas conveniently ignored was the fact that the report was just a ‘‘reiteration’’ of suggestions made earlier by a Joint Legislative Committee, which included a party colleague of his.

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The Joint Legislative Committee report, placed before the Assembly and the Council on March 9, 1999, was accepted by both houses without much ado.

In fact, the formation of the Veeresh Committee, which included experts from VIMHANS and police officers, was based on the recommendation of the same Legislative Committee.

In its report, the Legislative Committee stated: ‘‘When the crops fail due to natural calamities, the government compensating for crop losses is justifiable. If farmers commit suicide for some reason, the government announcing higher compensations and giving publicity through the media would encourage such incidents. The government has to stop such a precedent and should take up some programme to encourage self reliance.’’

The Committee was headed by G.B. Shivakumar and the members, included present Opposition leader Jagadish Shettar, A. Ramadas and Shanthaveerappa Gowda of the BJP, Dr M.P. Nadagouda of the JD(United) and Basavaraj Bommai of the JD(Secular).

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The Legislative Committee report also suggested that instead of considering farmers’ suicide only on compassionate grounds, the government should go into the details of ‘‘external’’ and ‘‘internal’’ factors pushing farmers to committing suicide.

Farmers committing suicide in Gulbarga and Bidar every year is common, the committee report stated. It was not right to attribute the reasons for the suicides during 1997-98 to crop failure, the report stated.

The Committee, that examined about 60 cases of farmers’ suicides reported during 1997-98 found that, in most cases, the farmers committed suicides for reasons other than crop failure.

The Committee recommended that the government release compensations in 10 out of 12 cases reported from Gulbarga district and two out of 21 cases from Bidar district. The Council found the other cases unfit for compensation.

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This time the report triggered off political criticism in the context of continuing reports from the state and elsewhere in India where distressed farmers were being driven to the extreme step.

Earlier media reports suggested that over-dependence on pesticides leading to crop resistance and in turn crop failure, mounting debts in the absence of banking facilities, and sharp fluctuation in the farm commodities market led to farmers distress in many parts of India.

A section of activists and academicians point out that given the liberalised economic policies and opening up of the agricultural market as per World Trade Organisation norms, nobody can really come up with a diagnosis on what ails the farming sector.