Siddaramaiah met farmers’ families in Mandya, Sunday.(Source: PTI) Siddaramaiah met farmers’ families in Mandya, Sunday.(Source: PTI)

On June 24, Ningegowda, 61, a differently abled sugarcane farmer from Mandya in south Karnataka, turned the standing sugarcane crop in his 18 gunta field (1 acre = 40 guntas) into his funeral pyre. Till then, only one other farmer’s suicide had been reported from the region since April this year — Rajendra, a 66-year-old farmer who had run up a debt of Rs 12 lakh, was reported to have killed himself on June 18.

But since then, as many as 12 more sugarcane farmers and two silk farmers are reported to have committed suicide in the water-rich Mandya region. So, of the total 68 farmer suicides reported from across Karnataka since April this year, 16 were from the well-irrigated, cash crop intensive southern ‘sugar bowl’ of Mandya.

Farmers’ groups have cited negligence by the state and central government on matters like fixing fair prices, payment of arrears by factories and a sugarcane glut as the main reasons for the sudden spike in suicides.

Ningegowda, the head of one of the poorest families in Ganada Hosur village in Pandavapura, had been supporting a disabled son and his wife through his earnings from the sugarcane grown on his tiny plot of land. The prospect of his crop earning only around Rs 700 per tonne against an expected Rs 2,200, amid a sugarcane glut and a pending debt of Rs 3 lakh — with private financiers charging exorbitant interest rates — are believed to have driven him to his death.

“The factory purchase price for sugarcane was fixed at Rs 2,650 per tonne in 2013-14 and Rs 2,200 per tonne in 2014-15. This time, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the price would be at least Rs 2,500 per tonne, but many units are paying farmers only Rs 700-800. This price will not help them get back their investment. This has led to the deaths,’’ said Konasale Narasaraju, vice-president of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha.

“The state government has not fixed a price for the sugarcane and has not interfered to get sugar factories to pay their dues to farmers,’’ he said.

The state government has so far accepted only 10 of the total suicides as being linked to farm distress and has shifted the blame to the Centre. “Till May this year the picture was different, but since June things have taken a different turn. We are not able to understand this,’’ Agriculture Minister Krishna Byregowda told the state legislature last week.

On Sunday, the Chief Minister, who visited the families of the dead farmers, said an “expert committee headed by agriculture expert Dr M S Swaminathan will be created to advise the government on agricultural initiatives”.

Siddaramaiah said he had ordered a detailed probe into the deaths. “Regions like Bengaluru (Rural), Kolar, Chikkaballapur have no special agricultural packages for farmers yet no farmer suicides were reported. This problem is specific to certain areas. So it is important to know the reasons behind it,” he said.

Sources in the government indicated that Siddaramaiah had played into the hands of sugar factories during his first year in power (2013-14) by promising to bear the cost of providing good prices to farmers, resulting in sugar factories expecting more of the same.

As many as 16 of the 58 sugar factories in Karnataka are controlled by Congress or BJP politicians. The Congress government, which had five sugar barons as ministers in 2013-14, has paid nearly Rs 1,500 crore in factory arrears to sugarcane farmers for 2013-14. Siddaramaiah has now sought the Centre’s assistance to pay dues of Rs 2,120 crore owed to farmers by sugar factories for the year 2014-15.

“We have been asking the Centre for assistance but it has not been granted. They don’t have any sympathy for farmers,’’ Siddaramaiah told the state legislature last week.

According to the Indian Sugar Mills Association, sugar production touched a record 279.57 lakh tonnes in the sugar season (October 1, 2014-May 31, 2015), compared to the 240.49 lakh tonnes produced the previous year. The mills in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka were among the main excess producers.

The association said the financial health of the sugar industry is in the doldrums despite the excess production with cane price arrears of farmers touching about Rs 22,000 crore. “The (central) government should immediately come out with some substantial assistance for sugarcane farmers and the sugar industry. Otherwise, many sugar mills cannot start their operations in 2015-16 and sugarcane will remain unharvested in the fields,’’ said the association.

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