Plight of the Jhabua farmers

With reference to The Hindu, 25 August 2009

The report from Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh, relates how the farmers of the Petlawad tehsil may soon reach the condition of the Vidarbha farmers in the past. As one of the 36 other drought-hit districts declared, the farmers would have nowhere to go if it does not rain in the coming week. It is pathetic that the vicious debt-cycle still prevails in the lives of our farmers.

Most of the farmers had opted for high input cash cropping systems like oilseed farming, in place of coarse grains and pulses, in light of the Government’s reforms on the sector. But the farmers are now facing the music as this transition, along with the buying of expensive varieties of seeds, pesticide and fertilizers, mostly on credit, is fast leading them towards bankruptcy. And the impending drought is helping their cause.

What is even more outrageous is the fact that the government officials are completely negating these issues as trivial and non-existent. They claim that the farmers do still grow food grains, and do not actually buy pesticides, etc on credit! Their argument being, that no one would give credit to the poor farmers as they are not even credit worthy. And that is all that they have to say in the matter!

As pointed out by a local activist fighting for the rights of these farmers, was the government’s job only to have training programs for improved farming? And no follow-up to look into the implementation of the programs?