People's Democracy

INDIAN VARIANT OF VIAGRA

Private Companies And Banks Dupe Haryana Farmers

Muralidharan

SAFED Musali, the Indian variant of the Viagra, is in the news. For different reasons, however. Several farmers from Karnal district of Haryana were lured to cultivate Safed Musali. The promised high returns not materialising, the farmers find themselves saddled with loans worth lakhs of rupees. These distressed farmers staged a sit-in at the Jantar Mantar in Delhi, recently.

Besides being an aphrodisiac, Safed Musali is also used in the manufacture of pain relievers, as a tonic, for curing general debility and impotency. Its powder, it is claimed, increases lactation in feeding mothers and lactating cows. It is being increasingly used in ayurvedic and pharmaceutical industries. A medicinal plant, which finds application in the treatment of a variety of diseases, Safed Musali, is one among the 32 prioritised medicinal plants according to the National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB) under the ministry of health and family welfare. There is very high demand both in India and abroad. As of now, demand surpasses production. The ministry’s website while giving demand and growth projections for other prioritised medicinal plants, however, has no such figure for Safed Musali. 

Safed Musali is an indigenous medicinal plant, which grows in the wild in the forests of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh etc. It is a small tuberous plant measuring 30-50 cm, has a life span of 3-8 months and surfaces once in a year during the rainy season. The list put out by the health ministry says that the state-wise natural habitat of this prioritised species is Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Tamilnadu and Uttar Pradesh. Haryana does not figure in the list. But farmers here were enticed by private companies to grow Safed Musali.

During the past few years, systematic efforts have been made to popularise the cultivation of Safed Musali even by government agencies. The NMPB has provided financial assistance worth lakhs for contractual farming of Safed Musali. The health ministry’s website also claims that there has been a favourable response to the contractual farming scheme which has a buy-back agreement.

Two companies, Himalaya Herbal Agrotech and Nature Paradise using this buy back scheme have duped scores of farmers in Karnal district of Haryana. In a letter written by All India Kisan Sabha general secretary, K Varadharajan, to the union agriculture minister, Sharad Pawar, the AIKS has claimed that these private companies in collaboration with some banks sold planting material of Safed Musali worth several lakhs to farmers of Pabana, Hasanpur, Salvan Asandh and Hansi Road villages. The letter explains that the companies entered into a buy-back agreement with the peasants, which it failed to honour. 

It is not just that the planting material is expensive. Expertise is required in judging the quality of the material. According to C R Raju, Project Director, Centre of Science & Technology for Rural Development (COSTFOR), Kerala “Safed Musali Sant & Ferm (Chlorophytum borivillianum of the family Liliaceae) is an important medicinal herb which requires planting material which is exorbitantly expensive. One has to book for the planting material well in advance and only when the material arrives, the cultivator will know about the quality of the material. With the high pervasiveness of the nematodes even in the natural habitats, getting the planting material without seeing is quite risky.” 

Obviously, the Karnal farmers were not informed of the risks involved. Not only was the planting material expensive, what many of them received was sub-standard planting material, resulting in crop loss of 50 to 80 per cent against the projected output. 

These two companies advertised in newspapers, conducted seminars, workshops etc. propagating that the central and state governments were offering subsidies for the cultivation of this cash crop, insurance agencies were offering insurance cover, banks were giving loans etc. These apart, both these companies also offered to buy-back the crop. Under the scheme, the companies were to arrange for bank loans for the purchase of the planting material and they were to buy back the product on harvest. Through this modus operandi these companies lured the farmers to grow Safed Musali. 

The Himalaya Herbal Agrotech did arrange for loans to the farmers. But the cheque for the loans went directly to the company and not to the farmers who had applied for loans, exposing the unholy nexus between the company and certain bank officials. Over and above the cost of the planting material, the banks also paid the company for the cost of the other inputs like fertiliser etc. Aggrieved farmers contacted the banks, only to be told that the company would make refunds. This has never happened. The cheques issued by the company bounced. 

Even while the central government is subsidising contractual farming of Safed Musali, the promised subsidy also did not reach the farmers. It is not known whether these companies have received the subsidy and cornered it themselves. And finally, after the harvest, the buy back agreement was not honoured. Neither was there any insurance for the crops.
The duped farmers represented before various authorities including the Haryana chief minister. The DCF (Production) conducted an enquiry and concluded that the motive of the Himalaya Agrotech “appears only to sell the seed of Safed Musli to the farmers. As the banks have approved loans to the farmers and also disbursed the amounts to the company directly, this mode of disbursement of loans by the banks have resulted in benefit of the company and to the detriment of the farmers in whose names the loans were sanctioned.“ The enquiry report further states “There is need to develop proper guidelines and procedure in the matter of cultivation of medicinal plants as this is a relatively new field for the farmers. Initial investment for cultivation of medicinal plants is high and at the same time there is no reliable market for the produce. Farmers have to depend on buy back agreement. It is made out from the present case that in case there is a default in buy back agreement, the farmer has no or little effective remedy.”

The AIKS alongwith other peasants organisations has taken up their case and is demanding adequate compensation for the losses suffered as well as bringing the culprits – both of these companies and the officials of the banks and governmental agencies involved – to book.