ANDHRA PRADESH

CPI(M) Urges PM To Rescue Farmers From Distress

                                                                           M Venugopala Rao

THE Andhra Pradesh state committee of the CPI(M) recently urged the prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to take prompt measures on the submissions made by it to meet the requirements of the farming community, which is in deep distress in the state. A delegation of the CPI(M) consisting of Polit Bureau member Koratala Satyanarayana, state secretary B V Raghavulu, and state secretariat members M V Narasimha Reedy, Paturu Ramaiah and Thammineni Veerabhadram submitted a memorandum to the prime minister during his Andhra visit, explaining the crisis the agrarian sector in Andhra Pradesh has been facing and the steps needed to be promptly taken to meet the situation.  The delegation took the opportunity to place on record the CPI(M)’s appreciation over the manner the government of India had responded to the crisis facing the agrarian sector in the state and its endeavour to provide relief to the farming community in deep distress. While welcoming the Andhra government’s initiatives like announcement of a relief package to the kin of the suicide victims, the CPI(M) made it cle0ar that the package was not commensurate with the intensity of the crisis.

The state witnessed suicides by over 3000 farmers during the last seven years, with more than 300 committing suicide during the last two months alone. The suicides occurred both in upland and irrigated areas, irrespective of the variety of crop (whether commercial or foodgrain), area, nature of irrigation source etc.  This, the CPI(M) made it clear, was the tragic outcome of the policies pursued by the previous TDP government at the instance of the World Bank.

Institutional credit flow to agriculture has come down drastically in the recent period. The proportion of agricultural credit in the net bank credit fell from 43 per cent in 1998 to 26.67 per cent in 2003, according to the annual credit plan of the state. Public investment in irrigation projects was badly neglected.  Spurious seeds and pesticides are more than common in the absence of an effective enforcement machinery and punitive measures for default. In addition to all these, nature also has been a curse to the farmers in the state, with more than 800 out of about 1100 mandals declared drought hit at least twice between 1999-00 and 2003-04. All those factors led the farmer to the threshold of suicide. In short, the situation was such that every small or marginal farmer in the state was a potential suicide victim, the CPI(M) delegation explained to the prime minister.

Many studies by academicians, NGOs and others have revealed that heavy debt burden is the prime cause for the spate of suicides by farmers. The share of moneylenders in credit is much higher than that of banks and cooperatives.  Further, the small and marginal farmers, as also the tenants, do not get access to institutional credit and are forced to take recourse to money lenders.

It is in this grim background that the CPI(M) delegation sought the prime minister’s prompt response to its following submissions:

1. Food for work programme must be launched immediately to help the landless poor. The centre must allot 10 lakh tonnes of foodgrain to the state immediately.

2. A debt relief commission must be appointed, and guidelines issued to the credit institutions for fresh loans to the farmers.

3. Moratorium should be declared for one year both in respect of loans from money lenders as well as the institutions, i.e., banks and cooperatives.

4.  Entire loan, including the interest accrued, owed by small and marginal farmers must be waived in the areas declared as drought affected for two years or more in the preceding five years.

5.  In Andhra Pradesh, about 35 lakh cultivators, mostly tenants, do not have access to institutional credit. Identification cards must be provided to them and fresh loans for the current kharif operations granted.

6.  The Seeds Act must be amended and made more stringent to punish the guilty in cases of supply of spurious seeds.

7.  Crop insurance scheme must be suitably amended to make it more friendly to farmers, particularly small and marginal farmers and also those in drought, flood and cyclone prone areas.

8.  Financial institutions like banks and insurance agencies must extend credit for construction of irrigation projects.